Unique Trends Research Articles

Soundscape shifts during the 2017 total solar eclipse: an application of dispersed automated recording units to study ephemeral acoustic events

ABSTRACT Shifts in soundscapes often reflect diurnal patterns. In 2017 a total solar eclipse occurred in the US, resulting in a period of 3 h with the sun partially covered by the moon and 2 min of total darkness. We hypothesised this would create yet unmeasured and novel changes in different biophonic events. We placed automated recording units across an urban–rural gradient within the path of the total solar eclipse. We used generalised additive models to model and visualise acoustic shifts as a function of both time and per cent urban development. Biophony, a measure of the average frequency generated from biological sound, increased immediately before the period of the total solar eclipse and following the end of the eclipse, assuming the character of a dusk and dawn chorus. Other unique effects were observed, such as less anthrophony before totality. The total solar eclipse provided novel insight on temporal and spatial variation in soundscapes. Key policy inslights The ecological response to changes in a landscape can be measured over time and space using acoustic technology Landscape context must be considered when studying the biology of astrological events Generalized additive modeling allows a better understanding of non-linear and unique trends and consider the nested effect of location

Toward Crowd-sourced Soundscape Monitoring in Protected Areas: Integrating Sound Dominance and Triggers to Facilitate Proactive Management

This research expanded on prior use of visitor perception data to inform potential social indicators of soundscape quality, by integrating existing urban-context soundscapes work, and the emerging use of triggers to help managers identify concerns before they reach the threshold level. Along with existing measures of sound appeal and acceptability, sound dominance helped provide a sense of how the extent of particular sounds influenced visitor experiences and a desire to visit more. Geospatial data collection for 899 visitors and eight sites within the Coyhaique National Reserve (CNR) in southern Chile during the summer high visitation season of 2019, allowed researchers to examine perceptual similarities and differences, facilitating an evaluation of new perceptual variables for soundscape monitoring. Correlation analyses identified informative relationships between the dominance (sound duration and foreground/background placement) of natural and anthropogenic sounds, and overall soundscape ratings. The duration of natural sounds was positively correlated with soundscape-level ratings, while the duration of anthropogenic sounds was negatively correlated with these ratings. Unique trends and relationships were identified across specific sites, demonstrating the value of adding measures of perceived sound dominance to soundscape monitoring processes. Observed Protected Area (PA) visitor enthusiasm for sounds and soundscapes suggests potential for crowd-sourced citizen science-based methods that could be done voluntarily and regularly using simple and accessible applications and technologies.

Delineating the role of foreign governments in the fight against corruption in Africa

Corruption on the African continent unfolds two unique trends: first, the involvement of senior state officials in the perpetration of grand corruption; and secondly, the illicit and surreptitious ...

The effects of temperature and salinity on the longevity of Opisthorchis viverrini cercariae: a climate change concern.

Research on the effects of environmental factors influenced by climate change on parasite transmissibility is an area garnering recent attention worldwide. However, there is still a lack of studies on the life cycle of Opisthorchis viverrini, a carcinogenic trematode found in countries of the Lower Mekong subregion of Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand. To evaluate the influences of environmental factors water temperature and salinity on the transmissibility of the liver fluke O. viverrini through cercarial stage, longevity of O. viverrini cercaria was examined at different experimental temperatures (22°C, 30°C and 38°C) and salinities (2.5 parts per thousand (PPT), 3.75 PPT and 5 PPT). The results reveal that different temperatures have statistically significant effects on cercarial longevity. The cercariae exhibited a thermostability zone ranging between 22°C and 30°C. Cercarial longevity was significantly shortened when water temperatures reached 38°C. Salinity also plays a key role in cercarial longevity, with cercarial survival significantly shorter at a salinity of 3.75 PPT than at 2.5 PPT and 5 PPT. A combined analysis of salinity and temperature revealed unique trends in cercarial longevity. At all experimental salinities, cercarial longevity was lowest when incubated in 38°C, but statistically significant from cercarial longevity at temperatures of 22°C and 30°C, and salinities of 2.5 PPT and 5 PPT. The results suggest that higher temperatures negatively impact parasite longevity. This reflects that O. viverrini transmission patterns may be impacted by changes in water temperature and salinity resulting from climate change.

Entrepreneurial Efforts by Bangladeshi Immigrant Women in New Zealand: A Preliminary Analysis

This exploratory research investigates the entrepreneurial orientation among migrant Bangladeshi women in New Zealand. There have been many studies of higher degrees of entrepreneurship among the migrant communities in the western world but this research studies the role and trends among the Bangladeshi migrant women using a mixed method of study. The descriptive statistics show unique trends among this group of women entrepreneurs. The women face various challenges but they also deal with these challenges in their unique ways. The striking trend that was established was that the limited expectations are limiting the growth of the businesses among these group of entrepreneurs in New Zealand. The findings of this research may be of interest among various policy makers both at the national and international levels. This may also be of interest for researchers who study women empowerment concepts around the world.

Computational Modelling-Based Device Design for Improved mmWave Performance and Linearity of GaN HEMTs

In this work, a comprehensive, TCAD based design approach for mmWave (mmW) GaN HEMTs is presented. Unique trade-offs between epi-layer design and HEMT's mmW performance are discussed. Effect of surface states on cut off frequency is modeled and presented. We have found that carrier trapping by the donor type interface states causes RF performance drift at high drain fields, which particularly leads to the non-linear behavior of mmW HEMTs at high drain bias. Moreover, we have observed that channel electrostatics, barrier layer, and UID GaN channel design govern the linearity and scaling behavior of such GaN HEMTs. To improve channel electrostatics, which improves the linearity and cut-off frequency, a partially recessed barrier under the gate is studied. A relative study of AlN/GaN HEMT and AlGaN/GaN HEMTs is performed to investigate the nonlinearity behavior. In addition, the dependence of cut-off frequency on contact resistance and lateral scaling is studied for partially-recessed barrier and conventional design for both AlN and AlGaN barrier types. The mmW performance is found to be a strong function of barrier design in the gate and recess regions. Unique design trends and physical behavior was observed for AlN and AlGaN barriers, which signifies that design guidelines derived for one epi-stack can't be deployed to the other.

Axillary Osmidrosis: Past, Present, and Future.

Axillary osmidrosis is characterized by offensive odor resulting from bacterial decomposition of apocrine secretions in the axillae, and individuals with axillary osmidrosis suffer detrimental effects to their psychosocial functioning. We searched the literature in January 2019 for all English-language publications discussing axillary osmidrosis to identify previous reports, present trends, and emerging treatments. Studies were listed chronologically by the country of the first author's institution. Publications were also classified regarding the study type (literature review), pathophysiology, and treatments. We identified 133 publications on axillary osmidrosis, and of these, 120 were from East-Asian countries. Before 1990, there were only 9 publications, but after 2000, publications increased in number. One hundred of 133 reports discussed treatment, namely, 39 reports on suction curettage, 28 reports on open surgery, and 8 reports on subdermal laser. Other studies focused on the pathophysiology of axillary osmidrosis. This literature review revealed unique trends in the identified studies. Because control of axillary odor is a universal subject, the etiology and pathophysiology of axillary osmidrosis have been studied throughout the world and are clearly described. However, almost all studies of surgical treatments have been performed in East-Asian countries. After the year 2000, various surgical and nonsurgical treatments, namely, laser therapy and suction curettage, have been attempted. Emerging treatments for axillary osmidrosis include ethanol injections, microwave therapy, and microneedle radiofrequency technologies; however, further studies of these treatments are needed.

Deep learning in clinical natural language processing: a methodical review.

This article methodically reviews the literature on deep learning (DL) for natural language processing (NLP) in the clinical domain, providing quantitative analysis to answer 3 research questions concerning methods, scope, and context of current research. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, the Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library, and the Association for Computational Linguistics Anthology for articles using DL-based approaches to NLP problems in electronic health records. After screening 1,737 articles, we collected data on 25 variables across 212 papers. DL in clinical NLP publications more than doubled each year, through 2018. Recurrent neural networks (60.8%) and word2vec embeddings (74.1%) were the most popular methods; the information extraction tasks of text classification, named entity recognition, and relation extraction were dominant (89.2%). However, there was a "long tail" of other methods and specific tasks. Most contributions were methodological variants or applications, but 20.8% were new methods of some kind. The earliest adopters were in the NLP community, but the medical informatics community was the most prolific. Our analysis shows growing acceptance of deep learning as a baseline for NLP research, and of DL-based NLP in the medical community. A number of common associations were substantiated (eg, the preference of recurrent neural networks for sequence-labeling named entity recognition), while others were surprisingly nuanced (eg, the scarcity of French language clinical NLP with deep learning). Deep learning has not yet fully penetrated clinical NLP and is growing rapidly. This review highlighted both the popular and unique trends in this active field.

Analysis of volatile organic compounds released from SW480 colorectal cancer cells and the blood of tumor-bearing mice.

BackgroundVolatile organic compound (VOC) analysis provides an elegant approach for colorectal cancer screening. An organic compound with a high vapor pressure or volatility can be detected in the headspace of cancer cells or blood samples. Therefore, analyzing VOCs in the blood of rats inoculated with colorectal cancer tissue and in SW480 medium from cultured colorectal cancer cells may provide accurate results.MethodsAfter collecting venous blood from rats inoculated with cancer cells at different times, the cancer tissue was removed from the inoculated rats, and the medium was harvested from the cancer cells and cultured in the presence or absence of a chemotherapy drug of intestinal epithelial cells. We used solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) to analyze the headspace of the blood and media to evaluate the VOC profiles. Statistical analysis was conducted using principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least-squares analysis (OP-LSDA).ResultsThe in vivo and in vitro analyses of the colorectal cancer samples revealed a variety of compounds, such as cyclohexanone, 1-hexanol, 2-ethyl-, butylated hydroxytoluene, cyclotrisiloxane, hexamethyl-, pentanoic acid, 2,2,4-trimethyl-3-hydroxy-isobutyl ester and acetone. Butylated hydroxytoluene is unique with regard to its presence during tumor growth and resection; it is also present during tumor cell growth and necrosis. Acetone showed unique trends in the in vivo experimental group.ConclusionsBy analyzing VOC fingerprints related to colorectal cancer (CRC), we found that butylated hydroxytoluene and acetone have unique signatures that may provide the basis for clinical diagnosis and disease assessment.

Analysis of Historical Transformer Failure and Maintenance Data: Effects of Era, Age, and Maintenance on Component Failure Rates

For several decades, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has maintained a unique database of equipment failure and maintenance data for critical facilities. This article takes a closer look at historical transformer failure and maintenance data, and provides a unique analysis of failure trends. Detailed analysis shows that failure rates for different categories of transformers demonstrate unique trends over time, with equipment age, and with respect to preventative maintenance levels. By analyzing over 144 thousand unit years of operational data, this article paints a more complete picture of component reliability. The data show that careful consideration of detailed failure and maintenance can better upgrade facility design and maintenance decisions, ultimately leading to improved system reliability and reduced operational costs.

Trends in first-time treatment admissions for older adults with alcohol use disorder: Availability of medical and specialty clinical services in hospital, residential, and outpatient facilities

BackgroundAlcohol use disorder (AUD) is a growing problem among older adults. The aim of this study was to quantify trends in first-time treatment admissions for older adults with AUD in the U.S., and examine the medical and specialty clinical services offered by treatment facility type. MethodsPatient level data were collected from the Treatment Episode Data Set for Admissions between 2004–2017. Joinpoint regression was used to identify unique trends in first-time treatment admissions for older adults with AUD. Provider level data were collected from the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS) for the most recent year, 2017. N-SSATS data were grouped by facility type (inpatient/hospital, residential, and outpatient treatment) to examine differences in medications and clinical services. ResultsAmong all persons seeking first-time treatment for AUD with alcohol as their primary drug of choice (n = 3,606,948), there was a significant increase in the proportion of older adults seeking treatment from 2004 to 2017 (p-trend<0.001), with an average annual percent change of 6.8% (95% confidence intervals: 6.2%–7.4%). The majority of older adults with AUD sought treatment in outpatient and residential facilities, which compared to hospital-based facilities had lower odds of offering supervised detoxification, acamprosate, naltrexone, psychiatric medications, or mental health services (all p-values<0.001). Fewer than 25% of hospital-based and 20% of residential or outpatient facilities offered specialty services for older adults. ConclusionsU.S. substance abuse treatment providers are not compensating for the changing nature of admissions by older adults, and are not providing state of the art services for this population.

Ewolucja polityki środowiskowej w XX i XXI-wiecznej Japonii

Głównym celem niniejszego tekstu jest analiza postrzegania współczesnej polityki środowiskowej w Japonii. Niezbędne było tu wskazanie czynników pozwalających określić, w jakim stopniu zmiana, która dokonała się w latach 90., wynikała z troski o samo środowisko, a w jakim stanowiła element rozgrywki, mający na celu uzyskanie odpowiedniej pozycji i wpływów wśród innych państw. Jest to o tyle interesujące, że podobne postępowanie stałoby w jawnej sprzeczności ze stereotypowym wyobrażeniem Japończyków, zgodnie z którym społeczność ta żyje w harmonii ze światem przyrody. Z tego względu niezbędne było przeanalizowanie historycznych wydarzeń, które doprowadziły do głębokich zmian społecznych w Japonii na przełomie XIX i XX wieku. Doszło wtedy do otwarcia się Japończyków na świat zewnętrzny, które zaowocowało zmianami postrzegania przyrody, przy jednoczesnym zachowaniu pewnych elementów dawnej tradycji (stojącej u podstaw wykształcenia się unikalnych trendów w zakresie badań nad środowiskiem).

ESD Reliability of AlGaN/GaN HEMT Technology

This experimental study reports new aspects of electrostatic discharge (ESD) behavior in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. The role of Schottky gate and MESA is investigated using special test structures. Influence of piezoelectric field, carrier trapping, and self-heating on ESD behavior is studied. A unique power-law-like behavior is found. Linear scaling of failure current with source–drain spacing is reported. Spot measured drain-to-source DC current is realized as an important parameter to monitor degradation. Unique degradation trends are observed for the first time and a correlation between snapback depth and % degradation is established. Cumulative nature of device degradation is discovered. Change from soft to hard failure with an increase in pulsewidth (PW) is reported. Finally, the cause of snapback instability observed in device, at low PW, is discussed.

Digital banking is an important ingredient for the future of banking

Banking industry consumers are exposed to unprecedented digital and FinTech experience characterised by innovative financial products and services. This development is supported by ever expanding Internet reach, proliferation of smartphone adoption and telecommunication network growth. Consequently, digital banking has emerged, introducing economies of time, cost and space for the consumers of financial services. This paper aims to diffuse the impression about the redundancy of traditional ‘brick-and-mortar’ branch structure after the advent of digital banking. The scope of the paper includes the evolution of ‘hybrid banking’, which is variously dubbed ‘bricks and clicks’ and ‘offline and online combo’, and so on. It is, in fact, the right mix of physical and digital features of banking that can cater to all categories of banking customers. The rationale of hybrid banking has been supported with various arguments and examples from the South Asian and Western banking markets. The potential of digital banking in Pakistan, given its unique demographics and trends, is highlighted. Insight and awareness presented by the paper include saving of time, space and cost using digital solutions, customer delight, cybersecurity biometric authentication, retina scanning and facial recognition, omnichannel experience, fickle customer loyalty, millennial customers, digital natives and the significance of digital specialists. Many would also be interested in the distinctive features of Pakistan’s banking market with the technology-prone youth bulge of 120 million and a vast financial inclusion gap.

Understanding structure and behavior of systems: a network perspective

Networks are interesting representation models for analysis of systems. The entities of the systems under review can be denoted as the nodes of the networks and the relationships between these entities as the edges connecting them. Such a representation has advantages in analysis as network theory has a rich collection of well defined concepts and methods. These concepts of can be applied on such networks to draw inferences about the systems. As digitization has penetrated almost all aspects of mankind, a wide variety of systems from diverse domains such as computer science, transportation, social science have become available in the form of networks. A network perspective provides valuable insights into their structure and behavior. In this inquiry networks representing real world systems from different domains are analyzed using concepts of network theory and statistical generative network models—SBM and LSM. This is done to various application scenarios to express the properties of these systems. The findings highlight the unique features and trends seen in each domain.

Empirical analysis of synthetic and real networks

With increasing digitization a wide variety of systems from diverse domains such as computer science, transportation, social science have become available in the form of networks. It is argued that to understand complex systems a deep understanding of the networks behind them is needed. A network theoretic perspective provides valuable insights into the structure and trends of systems. Data-sets belonging to different domains have their own unique features and behavioural trends and the current inquiry aims to highlight this. In this inquiry, a comprehensive analysis of synthetic and real-world published benchmark data-sets, evaluation methods, and open source projects is performed. The aim is to provide novice and expert users with tools for algorithmic designs and methodologies. Empirical studies are used to compare the performance of network theoretic tools on common data-sets. Finally, limitations of the network perspective on systems are listed and research directions to facilitate future study are elaborated.

DM-LIMGA: Dual Migration Localized Island Model Genetic Algorithm—a better diversity preserver island model

Island Model Genetic Algorithm (IMGA) is a multi-population based GA. IMGA aimed to avoid local optimum by maintaining population (island) diversity using migration. There are several mechanisms of migration and individual selection such as the best (or worst) individual selection, new naturally inspired evolution model, and dynamic migration policy. Migration can delay island (local) convergence and intrinsically preserve diversity. Ironically, migration is also potential to bring overall island (global) convergence, faster. In a certain generation, the migrated individuals among islands will have similar value (genetic drift). So, this work aims to preserve global diversity better by implementing Localized IMGA (LIMGA) and Dual Dynamic Migration Policy (DDMP). LIMGA creates unique evolution trends by using a different kind of GAs for each island. DDMP is a new migration policy which rules the individual migration. DDMP determines the state of an island according to its diversity and attractivity level. By determining its states, DDMP ensures the individual migrating to the correct island dynamically. We call the combination of LIMGA and DDMP as Dual Migration LIMGA (DM-LIMGA). Our experiments show that DM-LIMGA can preserve the diversity better. As its implication, DM-LIMGA can create a more extensive search space and dominates the results among other solvers.

Comparative profiling of gossypol enantiomers and seed traits’ related transcripts in cotton lines

Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is the world’s third most important oilseed crop as well as an economic source of protein. However, the presence of (-)- gossypol limits the nutritional value of cottonseeds. To genetically profile relevant traits, seeds of the two cotton parental lines TM-1 (G. hirstum) and 3-79 (G. barbadense) along with their 17 chromosomal substitution (CS) progenies were quantified for (-)- and (+)- enantiomer levels. The TM-1 parent was found to contain a higher ratio of (+)-:(-)- gossypol enantiomers (13.34:8.52 µg/mg) compared to that of 3-79 levels (6.69:7.41 µg/mg) in the seeds. Among progeny CS-B (containing substituted chromosomes from G. barbadense in G. hirsutum background) lines, only CS-B17 was found to contain significantly lower (7.65 µg/mg) level of (+)-enantiomer in its seeds, and also had the lowest (5.09 µg/mg) amount of (-)- gossypol among all lines. A singular protocol was then devised for RNA yields from polysaccharide-rich cottonseeds of CS-B17 and its parents. Transcription derived fragments (TDFs) analyses of these three lines were conducted on seeds harvested at 28, 35 and 42 days post anthesis (DPA). 64 TDFs profiles were analyzed using differential expression analyses, and similarities were revealed between 3-79 and CS-B17 along with unique expression trends for CS-B17. Such expression analyses, which are based on single chromosome differences with TM-1 parent while reflecting seed nutritional merit of 3-79 parent, may facilitate cotton breeding endeavors. Keywords: Chromosome substituted lines; Cotton; High performance liquid chromatography; Nutrition traits; RNA extraction; Transcription derived fragments http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2019.80129

Green bonds for the Paris agreement and sustainable development goals

The Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations Development Programme both entail substantial global investments through cost-efficient, long-term financing. Noted for their risk-alleviating features and appeal to institutional and socially responsible investors, green bonds are gaining prominence in climate change and sustainable development finance frameworks. This study is the first to thoroughly examine publicly reported green bond proceeds allocations from 53 organizations to projects and assets throughout 96 countries from 2008 to 2017. Green bond markets are growing rapidly, and yearly proceeds allocation trends reveal increasing disbursements to renewable energy, clean water, low-carbon transportation, and other Paris Agreement and SDG-related investment categories. Circle plot analysis reveals unique allocation trends to specific green sectors at both regional and national levels. International finance institutions allocated the largest share of proceeds by both frequency and volume, and the projects and assets financed with green bonds in this study sample are associated with over 108 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) in greenhouse gas emissions reductions and over 1500 gigawatts in renewable energy capacity. The study concludes with suggestions for improving green bond post-issuance reporting and provides insights for future green bond applications in expanding Paris and SDG agendas.

A sequence stratigraphic model for the organic-rich Upper Devonian Duvernay Formation, Alberta, Canada

The Upper Devonian Duvernay Formation of western Canada is a prolific source rock that in recent years has become an important exploration target for shale gas and oil. We present a sequence stratigraphic model for the Duvernay Formation that characterizes relationships between sea level, basin circulation, lithofacies distribution, and mechanisms for sediment transport and organic-enrichment. The study demonstrates lateral and stratigraphic variability in the character of sequence stratigraphic surfaces and systems tracts and interprets this variability in the context of sea level cycles at varying time scales. Correlation of 24 core descriptions to a network of 759 wells with wireline logs led to the creation of a basin-scale sequence stratigraphic framework.Three 3rd order depositional sequences are identified; the middle sequence straddles a 2nd order maximum flooding surface. Each systems tract shows unique trends in lithofacies, rock properties, and wireline character. Transgressive systems tracts are characterized by the increasingly widespread deposition of clay-poor, siliceous, organic-rich mudstones in the basin, resulting from decreased clastic and carbonate input, concentration of pelagic organic matter and siliceous radiolaria, and low oxygen concentrations in basin center bottom waters. Highstand systems tracts are characterized by sustained radiolarian input and increases in carbonate sediment due to shedding of carbonate detritus during aggradation and progradation of platform margins and reefs. Lowstand systems tracts are more clastic-rich and organic-poor. Near reef complexes, coarse carbonates locally mark the base of the lowstand systems tract. Bottom currents reworked mud- and silt-sized material in toe-of-slope locations and contributed to slope-parallel progradation during regression.