Standard Time Research Articles

The Effect of PDCA Circulation on Improving The Up-to-Standard Rate of Wearing Time Length in OSAHS Patients with Non-Invasive Ventilator

Purpose: To investigate the clinical effect of PDCA（Plan-Do-Check-Act） circulation mode in patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) using continuous positive air way pressure (CPAP) ventilator. Methods: 83 patients with OSAHS who were treated in the department of otorhinolaryngology head and neck surgery were randomly divided into PDCA group (n = 41) and control group (n = 42). The nursing outcomes of the two groups were compared. Result: The rate of reaching the standard wearing time length of non-invasive ventilator in the PDCA group was 80.49%, which was significantly higher than that in the control group (35.71%), and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=17.005, P<0.05). The compliance rate of patients in the PDCA group (90.24%) was higher than that in the control group (73.80%), and the difference was statistically significant (Z= 2.571, P<0.05). The incidence of adverse reactions in the PDCA group was 19.51% lower than that in the control group (64.29%), and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=17.005, P<0.05). The score of fatigue in the PDCA group (4.17 ±1.223) was significantly lower than that in the control group (6.45 ±0.803). Conclusion: PDCA circulation nursing model can effectively improve the up-to-standard rate of time length of patients wearing non-invasive ventilator, reduce the incidence of adverse reactions, improve patient compliance and reduce patient fatigue, which is worthy of clinical promotion. Key words: PDCA circulation nursing model; the up-to-standard rate of time length of non-invasive ventilator; compliance; incidence of adverse reactions; fatigue degree.

The role of protective liners and glass ionomer in managing pulp temperature during light curing.

To evaluate the thermal insulation of protective liners and glass ionomer cement during light-curing procedures. Human third molars underwent Class I preparations with dimensions 5 mm long × 4 mm wide × 4 mm deep in a standardized manner ensured a consistent ±0.5 mm dentin thickness at the pulpal floor. The teeth were attached to a customized oral cavity chamber simulator with a circulating bath at a standardized temperature of 34.2 ± 1oC. The temperature variations at the pulpal floor were captured in real-time by video using an infrared thermal camera (FLIR ONE Pro, FLIR Systems). The materials evaluated were: Dycal (Dentsply), TheraCal LC (Bisco), Activa (Pulpdent), and Fuji II LC (GC). All light-activation procedures were performed with the same light-curing unit (Valo Grand, Ultradent) in standard mode, 1000 mW/cm2, and time of exposure following manufacturer instructions. A power analysis was conducted to determine the sample size considering a minimal power of 0.8, with α=0.05. Statistical analyses were performed using ANOVA and Tukey's test for multiple comparisons. The temperature at the pulpal floor increased above the 5.5 ºC safety threshold difference for clinical scenarios tested. None of the materials provided proper thermal insulation for light-curing procedures (p = 0.25). The higher the number of light-cured steps, the longer the pulp remained above the 5.5 ºC temperature threshold. The materials tested provided improper thermal insulation (Δ > 5.5 ºC). Thus, prolonged or multiple light-curing exposures can be harmful to the pulp tissues. Therefore, for indirect pulpal capping procedures, self-cured materials or a reduced number of steps requiring light curing must be adopted to reduce the amount of time the pulp remains above the 5.5 ºC safety temperature threshold. Key words:Dental Pulp Capping, Calcium hydroxide, Bioactive, Thermal Damage.

Prediction of Rainfall Trends Using Forecasting Approaches Based on Singular Spectrum Analysis

Advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things provide an integrated platform for weather focusing, including rainfall and flood prediction. Large rainfall data frequently contain noise, which can be difficult to analyze using a standard time series model due to violated assumptions. Singular spectrum analysis (SSA) is a model-free time series analysis method that is widely used. This study aims to predict the rainfall trends in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, using the Recurrent SSA (SSA-R) and Vector SSA (SSA-V). The SSA-R forecasts using the recurrent continuation directly with the linear recurrent formula, while the SSA-V is a modified recurrent method. This study used 50 years of monthly rainfall data (1970-2019) from 25 stations in the special region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The SSA steps for forecasting rainfall data include decomposition (embedding and singular value decomposition), reconstruction (grouping and diagonal averaging), and evaluating the SSA model using w-correlation (if w-correlation is close to zero, returning to the decomposition stage; otherwise, continue the process), forecasting, evaluating the forecast results using root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error, r, and mean forecast error, and finally selecting the best model (either the SSA-R or SSA-V model). The results showed that the SSA-R performed better than SSA-V due to the smallest RMSE in the dry, rainy, and inter-monsoon seasons. The SSA-R model’s forecast results revealed faint, constant patterns for the dry, and rainy seasons and an increasing pattern for the inter-monsoon season. The novelty of this study is to compare the performance of the SSA-R and SSA-V models in the large rainfall data in the special region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Proposed Strategies for Improving Productivity in the Wagon Painting Process Considering the Worker's Health Level

Productivity can be expressed as the quantitative relationship between the output generated and the input utilized. The evidence of high worker productivity signifies the workforce's capacity to meet the company's production targets effectively and efficiently. As one of the inputs in the production process, the workers must have proper physical, mental, and social health conditions to carry out their work activities well. A developing train manufacturing company in East Java has several stages of the production process, one of which is the painting process. Chemicals are supposed to be a potential hazard in the painting process, which can harm workers' health, primarily if the work is carried out over a long time. Health issues resulting from exposure to spray paint and the failure to meet production targets indicate the need for in-depth investigation. Therefore, this research aims to determine the effect of health on worker productivity and design strategies for improving worker's productivity. The methods employed are the Work Limitation Questionnaire (WLQ) and Time and Motion Study. The findings indicate that there is a partial relationship between time management and productivity. It is critical to put out recommendations aimed at minimizing the duration of paint exposure experienced by workers. The proposed strategies demonstrate the capability to decrease the standard time required for the flat-top wagon painting process by 1.11 hours (41.11%). This improvement is achieved by reducing the number of work motions from 20 to 14, and finally, productivity is improved by 3.6.

Understanding rate of return dynamics of cryptocurrencies: an experimental campaign

In recent years, cryptocurrencies have been considered as an asset by public investors and received much research attention. It is a volatile asset, thus predicting its prices is not easy due to the dependence on multiple external factors. Machine learning models are becoming popular for cryptocurrency price predictions, while also considering social media data. In this article, we analyze the rate of return of three cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ether, Binance) from an investor point of view. We also consider three traditional external variables: S&P 500 stock market index, gold price, and volatility index. The rate of return prediction is based on three stages. First, we analyze the correlation between the cryptocurrency returns and the traditional external variables. Next, we focus on the influential social media variables (from Twitter, Reddit, and Wikipedia). Later, we use these variables to improve prediction accuracy. Third, we test how the standard time series models (such as ARIMA and SARIMA) and four machine learning models (such as RNN, LSTM, GRU and Bi-LSTM) predict one-day rate of return. Finally, we also analyze the risk of investing in each cryptocurrencies using value risk statistics. Overall, our result shows no correlation between cryptocurrency returns and three traditional external variables. Second, we found that overall LSTM model is the best, GRU is the second-best prediction model, while the impact of the social media variables varies depending on the cryptocurrencies. Finally, we also found that investment in gold offers better returns than cryptocurrency during Covid-19-like situations.

Redesign of Automatic Vacuum Cleaner with Participatory Approach

While using automatic vacuum cleaners, users found dissatisfaction namely dust problem, obstacle problem, and narrow space problem. Therefore, the problems in this automatic vacuum cleaner must be fixed so that it can maximize user productivity. The methods that researchers will use to carry out this research include the participatory ergonomic which is a method for translating consumer needs into an optimal and solutive products by gain aspirations from users and stakeholders. The next method is Maynard Operation Sequence Technique which is a predetermined motion time method that aims to determine the standard time for doing work. There are also participatory usability and ergonomics methods that help this research. For the dust problem, researchers have looked for a solution to the problem, namely by adding SLAM and Artificial Intelligence logarithms to the automatic. For the narrow space problem, researchers have designed different nozzles for the automatic to use. For this exact problem, researchers have added a crevice nozzle to the automatic so that the automatic can insert suction in narrow areas such as the back of cupboards. Researchers created this feature so that users no longer need to bother cleaning dust from sofas, tables and other items in the user’s room.

Assessment of Temporal Trend in Surface Air Temperatures across Some Selected Eco-Climatic Zones in Nigeria

Temporal trends in surface air temperatures across some selected eco-climatic zones in Nigeria from 1981 to 2018 were assessed using the Merra-2 reanalysis dataset. A total of 15 stations spread across the eco-climatic zones in Nigeria were used for this study. The Mann-Kendall (M-K) trend test was used to detect direction, significance, coefficients of time trends, while the linear regression and the Sen’s slope trend tests were used to estimate the trend magnitudes. The M-K trend test showed that the surface air maximum temperature of 14 stations had monotonic increasing trends, of which 13 stations were statistically significant at the 0.01 significance level, and 1 station was statistically significant at the 0.05 significance level. However, the M-K trend test also showed that surface air minimum temperature for all the 15 stations (representing 100%), showed monotonic upward trends, statistically significant at the 0.01 significance level. The Sen's slope and linear trend tests showed higher trend magnitudes at most stations, particularly stations in the Guinea-wooded, Sudan and Sahel savannas. The estimated mean trend magnitudes of maximum and minimum air surface temperatures increased by approximately 0.035°C/year and 0.036°C/year, respectively. The estimated mean air surface temperature increased by approximately 0.036°C/year and approximately 1.4°C for Nigeria over the 38-year period. The study then presents a linear trend projection of mean air surface temperature increase in Nigeria of approximately 4.3°C by 2100. This is 0.2°C below maximum levels and within the range of approximately 1.5 to 4.5°C that global air surface temperature is projected to rise by 2100 in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007 report. The M-K and linear trend tests were fully consistent with the standardized time series anomaly plots. Mean annual values of the air surface temperatures showed latitudinal dependence. The manifestation of significant long-term trends at high confidence levels in the air surface temperatures over the period, provides a clear evidence that the climate of Nigeria is witnessing a possible human-induced radiative forcing and a strong tendency for the occurrences of climate-related extreme events and their resulting adverse implications.

Proposal to improve the process of administration of projects financed by CONACYT by the Treasuries of the Universities of Campeche

The treasuries of the universities and educational institutions of the state of Campeche, have processes for the administration of projects that are generally made up of many steps to follow to carry out the different procedures such as payments to suppliers, per diems, scholarships, among others, which usually takes from days to weeks, making it impossible to meet the commitments made by the institution. The objective of this work is to evaluate the flow of the current financial administration process of the projects of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) to propose a reengineering of the processes. The technique of direct observation and the survey was applied to learn from the users the perspective of the administrative process and to identify critical points in conflict. The study of time and movement proposed by Tejada et al (2017) was applied, a tool that determines the standard times of the operations that make up a process; and the movements of the people involved to carry out said operation. With this application of this method, the following were achieved: minimizing the time required in each step and the costs, providing a reliable and high-quality process, eliminating inefficient steps, and accelerating the efficient ones.

Perhitungan Waktu Baku Proses Preventive Maintenance Mesin CNC Router

An efficient preventive maintenance requires scheduling process. The first step of this process is to calculate the standard time for each maintenance activity. This research aims to calculate the standard time for preventive maintenance activities for CNC Router machines at PT X through three stages: (1) Interviews and direct observation with the relevant machine operators to obtain a list of maintenance activities, (2) measure the cycle time of each maintenance activities, (3) Calculate Standard time based on cycle time measurement data. The research results show that it takes a total of 100 minutes to carry out the daily maintenance process, 95 minutes for the weekly maintenance process, 790 minutes for the maintenance process after 2000 hours, and 1140 minutes for the maintenance process after 4000 hours. This result can be used as input for the scheduling process for CNC Router machines maintenance at PT. X.

Efficacy, safety, and tolerability of adjunctive eslicarbazepine acetate in patients with focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures

ObjectiveTo report the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of adjunctive eslicarbazepine acetate (ESL) treatment in reducing focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures (FBTCS). MethodsData were pooled from 3 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of adjunctive ESL in patients with focal seizures. Patients treated with 800 or 1200 mg/day ESL and who experienced ≥ 1 FBTCS during baseline were included. Efficacy was measured using FBTCS standardized seizure frequency (SSF), responder rates (≥50%, ≥75%, and 100%), and time to first FBTCS. Adverse events (AEs) were tabulated for each subgroup. ResultsOf the original 1447 patients, 438 patients in the safety population were included with ≥ 1 FBTCS at baseline (efficacy population, n = 429). Patients with ≥ 2 FBTCS (safety, n = 354; efficacy, n = 346) and ≥ 3 FBTCS (safety, n = 294; efficacy, n = 288) at baseline were also analyzed.The 1200 mg/day ESL group experienced lower least squares mean SSF vs placebo in patients with ≥ 1 baseline FBTCS (P = 0.0395) and ≥ 3 baseline FBTCS (P = 0.0091). The 50% responder rates improved for 1200 mg/day ESL vs placebo (≥1 FBTCS, P = 0.005; ≥2 FBTCS, P = 0.0063; ≥3 FBTCS, P = 0.0016). The 75% responder rates improved with 1200 mg/day ESL vs placebo (≥1 FBTCS, P = 0.0315; ≥2 FBTCS, P = 0.0215; ≥3 FBTCS, P = 0.0099), and with 800 mg/day ESL for ≥ 2 FBTCS at baseline (P = 0.0486). The 100% responder rate was higher in patients treated with 1200 mg/day ESL (not significant). Time to first FBTCS was longer with both 800 (P = 0.0008) and 1200 mg/day (P = 0.0020) ESL vs placebo for the ≥ 1 FBTCS subgroup, and with 1200 mg/day ESL for ≥ 2 FBTCS (P = 0.0060) and ≥ 3 FBTCS (P = 0.0152) subgroups.Overall, AEs occurred at similar rates across subgroups, and were lower than the original RCTs. ConclusionAdjunctive ESL produced a robust response in patients with FBTCS, a seizure type associated with SUDEP and high injury rates. Adjunctive ESL was well tolerated in patients who experienced FBTCS.

A non-zero-sum investment and reinsurance game between two mean–variance insurers with dynamic CVaR constraints

This paper is devoted to investigating a non-zero-sum game between two competing insurers. The insurers can diversify their insurance risks by purchasing proportional reinsurance and investing their collected premiums into a financial market composed of one risk-free asset and one stock. The reinsurance premiums charged by the reinsurer follow the generalized mean–variance premium principle. Moreover, the dynamic CVaR constraints are incorporated in the game problem to control risks. With the dynamic mean–variance objective, we introduce two forward deterministic auxiliary processes to represent the expectations of the insurers’ wealth processes and transform the original time inconsistent game problem into a standard time consistent game problem with two state variables for each insurer. By adopting the dynamic programming principle and the Lagrange duality method, we derive the Nash equilibrium investment–reinsurance strategies for the two insurers. Finally, the effects of several important model parameters on the optimal policies are analyzed by numerical examples.

Activities efficiency assessment of the governing body’s task force under environmental emergency

Purpose. To work out the method for activities efficiency assessment of the governing body’s task force under environmental emergency. In order to achieve this goal, it is proposed to apply an integrated approach that allows increasing the effectiveness of its work. Methodology. The method for activities efficiency assessment of the governing body’s task force under environmental emergency was applied which allowed determining the degree of its capabilities realization. To study this process, a systematic approach was used, according to which the governing body is considered as a complex system that has a hierarchical structure and is a set of functionally interconnected structural units, united in their activities by the shared goal, concept and action plan. Findings. As the task force’s activity basis, a reasonable decision was determined of the governing body’s head, at the development and implementation of which the task force’s work is aimed. The task force’s efforts coordination is carried out in accordance with the tasks, directions, areas, time and methods of tasks performing that are assigned to the subdivisions of the governing body. As the main factor in activities efficiency assessment, the training level of the governing body’s task force was determined, that stipulates its professional and personal features. Originality. The proposed method for activities efficiency assessment of the governing body’s task force is estimated using an integral index – the degree of its capabilities realization to perform tasks. In the mentioned method, the criterion for activities efficiency of the governing body’s task force is determined as a condition under which the quotient from division of the total capabilities realized by the governing body’s task force indicator by the indicator of its total potential capabilities is in the range 0.8–1. A diagram of the method for assessing the task force’s activities efficiency was elaborated, containing interrelated blocks (activities), direct connections and feedback, which generally characterizes the sequence and actions content of the governing body’s head when implementing the mentioned method. Practical value. An example of estimating the activities efficiency of the governing body’s task force to achieve the goal in terms of an integral index – the degree of its capabilities realization to perform tasks, which is calculated using the proposed method, was considered. The initial data for calculation were the main tasks performed by the environmental emergency response headquarters’ task force, standard time indicators and prescribed time for tasks performance designated by the governing body’s head. On this basis, an analysis of the headquarters’ actions on eliminating the emergency consequences connected with the blowing up of the Kakhovska HPP was carried out, its main tasks and features of the decision-making process in uncertain conditions were established. The directions of increasing activities efficiency of the governing body’s task force were elaborated, in particular by increasing their professional competence, implementing innovative approaches to the transformation of governing styles, rational tasks distribution.

Penentuan Waktu Baku dengan Stopwatch Time Study untuk Pengukuran Kerja Operator di PT XYZ Lampung Tengah

PT XYZ, a company in the agribusiness sector, operates a chick hatching production line that yields hatching eggs as its final product. Currently, the company's production process lacks standardized working hours across various crucial stations – namely, terminal, pullchick, vaccine, and packing stations. This absence of standardized hours poses a significant challenge, impacting labor productivity. Additionally, the work pace remains inconsistent among employees at these stations, resulting in unpredictable monthly fluctuations in hatching egg production, rendering it unstable. To address these challenges, the implementation of the stopwatch time study method becomes imperative. This research aims to ascertain cycle time, normal time, and establish standard working hours across the terminal, vaccine, pullchick, and packing stations. Furthermore, the goal is to standardize the work time specifically at pullchick and packing stations. The objective is to compare these standard times against the current practices to enhance worker productivity effectively. Following the research, notable improvements have been observed. The terminal station has experienced a 1-train increase in output, rising from the prior 18 trains to 19 trains. Similarly, the vaccine station has shown remarkable progress, with an output surge of 6 boxes per hour, escalating from a previous rate of 25 boxes/hour to 31 boxes/hour. These findings underline the positive impact of implementing standardized work times, indicating enhanced productivity and efficiency across these stations within PT XYZ's production process.

Sub-Nanosecond UTC Dissemination Based on BDS-3 PPP-B2b Service

The BeiDou-3 system (BDS-3) broadcasts PPP-B2b signals to provide real-time PPP service. Compared with the traditional PPP technique, the PPP-B2b service broadcasts corrections through satellite links, covers a wide area, and is independent of the internet. With the PPP-B2b service, users can obtain high-precision positioning information through the real-time PPP. Many studies have been conducted to evaluate the positioning performance of PPP-B2b. In theory, high-precision timing information could also be obtained through PPP-B2b. With the development of science and technology, the need for highly accurate time measurement, even at the sub-nanosecond level, is experiencing significant growth. However, the GNSS standard timing service can hardly meet these requirements. This contribution analyzes the timing performance of the PPP-B2b service and proposes a sub-nanosecond precise timing method of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) based on the PPP-B2b service. BDS-3 and GPS observations from nine tracking stations and real-time collected PPP-B2b corrections over 516 days were used to analyze the performance of the proposed timing method. The results show that: (1) The difference between the PPP-B2b-restored UTC, which was realized by one-way timing with the UTC offsets in broadcast ephemeris, and UTC (NTSC), fluctuates within a few ns. (2) The timing uncertainty of the zero baseline based on the proposed method is better than 0.2 ns. (3) Compared with the post-processed PPP time transfer, the UTC dissemination uncertainty of the short and long baseline with the proposed method is better than 0.7 ns. The experiment results verified the feasibility of the proposed sub-nanosecond level precise UTC dissemination method based on the PPP-B2b service.

Short-term forecasting airport passenger flow during periods of volatility: Comparative investigation of time series vs. neural network models

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), known for handling complex data tasks like language translation and speech recognition, are seldom employed in airport management practice for daily and weekly passenger flow forecasting tasks. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness and adaptability of various neural network models (RNN, LSTM, GRU, Deep LSTM, Bidirectional LSTM, multivariate RNN, and multivariate LSTM) against standard time series models (ARIMA, SARIMA, and SARIMAX) for a short-term forecasting airport security checkpoint passenger flows at five major U.S. airports during the pandemic.At Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport (ATL), the RNN notably surpasses SARIMA’s forecasting accuracy by 34% (DM = 3.44, p < 0.01). This underscores RNN’s superiority in handling complex interactions among variables and non-linear dynamics, demonstrating its readiness for the emerging data-rich environment. Including exogenous variables enhances the forecasting accuracies of the multivariate RNN/LSTM (DM = 6.82, p < 0.01; DM = 2.65, p < 0.01, respectively), while the SARIMAX struggles with the added complexity.We observed the same patterns at the other four airports studied (DEN/ORD/LAX/DFW) during the pandemic period. However, during the normal airport traffic period, the clear superiority of RNN became much less pronounced, obscuring the performance gap between RNN and SARIMA. This suggests that the inherent advantages of RNN in capturing non-linearity are accentuated during volatile conditions and less pronounced or not pronounced at all during routine periods.

Effect of Commercial Children's Mouthrinses and Toothpastes on the Viability of Neonatal Human Melanocytes: An In Vitro Study.

In this study, we examined the cytotoxic effects of six commercial children's mouthrinses (designated as #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6) and four commercial children's toothpastes (designated as #1, #2, #3, and #4) on primary human neonatal melanocytes that were used as a representative model for oral melanocytes. Mouthrinses diluted directly with culture medium (1:2, 1:5, 1:10, 1:100, and 1:1000) were added to monolayers of melanocytes for 2 min, followed by 24 h recovery, after which MTS cytotoxicity assay was conducted. The extracts of each toothpaste were prepared (50% w/v), diluted in culture medium (1:2, 1:5, 1:10, 1:50, 1:100, and 1:1000), and added to cell monolayers for 2 min (standard brushing time), followed by an analysis of cell viability after 24 h. Results showed that all mouthrinses except mouthrinse #4 showed significantly greater loss of cell viability, ascribed to cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) that induced significant cytotoxicity to melanocytes (IC50 = 54.33 µM). In the case of toothpastes, the examination of cellular morphology showed that a 2 min exposure to all toothpaste extracts induced a concentration-dependent decline in cell viability, pronounced in toothpaste containing sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) detergent. Further results suggested SLS to be the critical driver of cytotoxicity (IC50 = 317.73 µM). It is noteworthy that toothpaste #1 exhibited much lower levels of cytotoxicity compared to the other three toothpastes containing SLS. Taken together, these findings suggest that the melanocytotoxicity of children's mouthrinse (#4) and toothpaste (#1) is comparatively low. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of children's toothpastes and mouthrinses on neonatal primary human melanocytes. Future studies to investigate these findings in a realistic scenario replicating oral cavity conditions of the presence of microbiota, pellicle layer and saliva, and other cell types are warranted.

Distinct brain dynamics and networks for processing short and long auditory time intervals

Psychophysical studies suggest that time intervals above and below 1.2 s are processed differently in the human brain. However, the neural underpinnings of this dissociation remain unclear. Here, we investigate whether distinct or common brain networks and dynamics support the passive perception of short (below 1.2 s) and long (above 1.2 s) empty time intervals. Twenty participants underwent an EEG recording during an auditory oddball paradigm with .8- and 1.6-s standard time intervals and deviant intervals either shorter (early) or longer (delayed) than the standard interval. We computed the auditory ERPs for each condition at the sensor and source levels. We then performed whole brain cluster-based permutation statistics for the CNV, N1 and P2, components, testing deviants against standards. A CNV was found only for above 1.2 s intervals (delayed deviants), with generators in temporo-parietal, SMA, and motor regions. Deviance detection of above 1.2 s intervals occurred during the N1 period over fronto-central sensors for delayed deviants only, with generators in parietal and motor regions. Deviance detection of below 1.2 s intervals occurred during the P2 period over fronto-central sensors for delayed deviants only, with generators in primary auditory cortex, SMA, IFG, cingulate and parietal cortex. We then identified deviance related changes in directed connectivity using bivariate Granger causality to highlight the networks dynamics associated with interval processing above and below 1.2. These results suggest that distinct brain dynamics and networks support the perception of time intervals above and below 1.2 s.

Validation of Tele-HRV: A Novel Digital Health Solution for Cardiovascular Risk Detection in Diabetes

BackgroundHeart rate variability (HRV) in a sensitive test of Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) and predicts high mortality in diabetes subjects. Our innovative TeleHRV solution conforms to the HRV Task Force Standards and consists of mApp controlled battery powered handy device that uploads data to the cloud and delivers eReport. It eliminates all cost and technical constraints and makes HRV available for mass application. Aim of this study was to compare the computation accuracy of standard HRV indices using TeleHRV analysis software and its open-source equivalent software Kubios HRV which is considered the gold standard. MethodsData for this project was downloaded from Physionet.org. Standard Time domain indices (mean RR, SDNN, RMSSD, NN50) and Frequency Domain Indices (LF, HF and LF/HF) were calculated with TeleHRV analysis software and Kubios HRV software and Correlation Coefficient (CC) as well as Intra-Class Correlation Coefficient (ICCC) were computed for the indices obtained from the two software. ResultsThe Maximum of ICCC =1 (which is perfect agreement) was obtained for mean RR interval while the Minimum CC= 0.9976 was obtained for LF/HF which is extremely well correlated for a minimum observation; CC and ICCC for other indices were in between for the two software. ConclusionThe statistics strongly suggests that TeleHRV's analysis software faithfully matches the HRV indices values calculated by the gold standard Kubios HRV and support the validity of TeleHRV, which provides a cost effective, handy and user-friendly technology in a resource constrained and remote locations for early detection of CAN in diabetes.

Long-term trends in juvenile Mugil liza abundance in relation to selected environmental and fisheries influences in southern Brazil

Overfishing constitutes a major threat affecting marine fish population worldwide, including mullet species that have been exploited by fisheries during the reproductive migration in temperate and tropical latitudes for millennia. In the present study, we investigated the relationship of fishing intensity of mullet Mugil liza during its reproductive migration and the abundance of their juveniles in an essential nursery ground for the species in the southwest Atlantic Ocean. To carry out this analysis, we used a 23-year standardized long-term time series (1997–2019) of monthly abundance of M. liza juveniles, local/regional (water temperature, salinity, water transparency and river discharge) and global (ENSO) environmental factors, along with compilations of fishing landing data for the species. Generalized Additive Models (GAM) revealed the negative effect of fishing adult populations on the abundance of juveniles when they reach the marine surf-zone and after recruiting into the estuary. Our results reinforce the importance of adequate conservation and fishery regulation policies to prevent the species' stock from collapsing.

Characteristics of cloud-to-ground lightning (CG) and differences between +CG and −CG strokes in China regarding the China National Lightning Detection Network

Abstract. A lightning location system consisting of multiple ground-based stations is an effective means of lightning observation. The dataset from CNLDN (China National Lightning Detection Network) in 2016–2022 is employed to analyze the temporal and spatial lightning distributions and the differences between +CG (positive cloud-to-ground lightning) and −CG (negative cloud-to-ground lightning) strokes in China. On the annual scale, lightning activity is most prevalent during the summer months (June, July, and August), accounting for 72.6 % of the year. Spring sees more lightning than autumn, and winter has only a small amount in southeastern coastal areas. During the day, the frequency of lightning peaks at 15:00–17:00 CST (China standard time) and is lowest at 8:00–10:00 CST. For the period with high CG stroke frequency (summer of a year or afternoon of a day), the proportion of +CG strokes and the discharge peak current are relatively small. Winter in a year and morning or midnight in a day correspond to a greater +CG stroke proportion and discharge current. Spatially, low latitudes, undulating terrain, the seaside, and humid surfaces are favorable factors for lightning occurrence. Thus, the southeast coastland has the largest lightning stroke density, while the northwest deserts and basins and the western and northern Tibetan Plateau, with altitudes over 6000 m, have almost no lightning. The proportion of +CG strokes and the peak current are low in the southern region with high density but diverse in other regions. The Tibetan Plateau causes the diversity of lightning activity in China and lays the foundation for studying the impact of surface elevation on lightning. Results indicate that the +CG stroke proportion on the eastern and southern Tibetan Plateau is up to 15 %, larger than the plain regions. The peak current of −CG strokes is positively correlated with altitude, but +CG strokes show a negative correlation, resulting in a large difference in peak current between +CG and −CG on the plain and a small difference on the plateau.