Automatic Speech Classifier for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Early Dementia

The World Health Organization estimates that 50 million people are currently living with dementia worldwide and this figure will almost triple by 2050. Current pharmacological treatments are only symptomatic, and drugs or other therapies are ineffective in slowing down or curing the neurodegenerative process at the basis of dementia. Therefore, early detection of cognitive decline is of the utmost importance to respond significantly and deliver preventive interventions. Recently, the researchers showed that speech alterations might be one of the earliest signs of cognitive defect, observable well in advance before other cognitive deficits become manifest. In this article, we propose a full automated method able to classify the audio file of the subjects according to the progress level of the pathology. In particular, we trained a specific type of artificial neural network, called autoencoder, using the visual representation of the audio signal of the subjects, that is, the spectrogram. Moreover, we used a data augmentation approach to overcome the problem of the large amount of annotated data usually required during the training phase, which represents one of the most major obstacles in deep learning. We evaluated the proposed method using a dataset of 288 audio files from 96 subjects: 48 healthy controls and 48 cognitively impaired participants. The proposed method obtained good classification results compared to the state-of-the-art neuropsychological screening tests and, with an accuracy of 90.57%, outperformed the methods based on manual transcription and annotation of speech.

Factors influencing physical distancing compliance among young adults during COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia: A photovoice mixed methods study

The spreading of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is growing out of control in Indonesia since the first two confirmed cases were announced in March 2020. Physical distancing measures are key to slowing down COVID-19 transmission. This study investigated factors associated with physical distancing compliance among young adults in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area, Indonesia. A convergent photovoice mixed methods design was used. Quantitatively, using data from 330 young adults in Jakarta Metropolitan Area, Indonesia, physical distancing compliance scores and its associated factors were analyzed with hierarchical linear regression. Responses from 18 young adults in online focus group discussions and 29 young adults in photovoice were analyzed with thematic analysis. Then, the findings were integrated using joint displays. The mean compliance score of young adults was 23.2 out of 27.0. The physical distancing compliance score was higher among those who worked or studied from home (β = 0.14, p <0.05), compared with those who resumed work at an office or study at school. Celebrating religious days (β = −0.15, p <0.05) and having hometown in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (β = −0.12, p <0.05) were negatively associated with higher physical distancing compliance scores. Joint displays expanded the reasons for workplace policy, awareness, and social pressure as facilitators and barriers to compliance. Young adults’ physical distancing compliance scores were high, but they are at risk of not complying due to religious events and changes in workplace policies. Beyond individual efforts, external factors, such as workplace policies and social pressure, play a major role to influence their physical distancing compliance.

Scopus 1900–2020: Growth in articles, abstracts, countries, fields, and journals

Scientometric research often relies on large-scale bibliometric databases of academic journal articles. Long term and longitudinal research can be affected if the composition of a database varies over time, and text processing research can be affected if the percentage of articles with abstracts changes. This article therefore assesses changes in the magnitude of the coverage of a major citation index, Scopus, over 121 years from 1900. The results show sustained exponential growth from 1900, except for dips during both world wars, and with increased growth after 2004. Over the same period, the percentage of articles with 500+ character abstracts increased from 1% to 95%. The number of different journals in Scopus also increased exponentially, but slowing down from 2010, with the number of articles per journal being approximately constant until 1980, then tripling due to megajournals and online-only publishing. The breadth of Scopus, in terms of the number of narrow fields with substantial numbers of articles, simultaneously increased from one field having 1000 articles in 1945 to 308 in 2020. Scopus’s international character also radically changed from 68% of first authors from Germany and the USA in 1900 to just 17% in 2020, with China dominating (25%). Peer Review https://publons.com/publon/10.1162/qss_a_00177

Apoptosis in Type 2 Diabetes: Can It Be Prevented? Hippo Pathway Prospects

Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous disease of complex etiology and pathogenesis. Hyperglycemia leads to many serious complications, but also directly initiates the process of β cell apoptosis. A potential strategy for the preservation of pancreatic β cells in diabetes may be to inhibit the implementation of pro-apoptotic pathways or to enhance the action of pancreatic protective factors. The Hippo signaling pathway is proposed and selected as a target to manipulate the activity of its core proteins in therapy-basic research. MST1 and LATS2, as major upstream signaling kinases of the Hippo pathway, are considered as target candidates for pharmacologically induced tissue regeneration and inhibition of apoptosis. Manipulating the activity of components of the Hippo pathway offers a wide range of possibilities, and thus is a potential tool in the treatment of diabetes and the regeneration of β cells. Therefore, it is important to fully understand the processes involved in apoptosis in diabetic states and completely characterize the role of this pathway in diabetes. Therapy consisting of slowing down or stopping the mechanisms of apoptosis may be an important direction of diabetes treatment in the future.

Simulating the impact of charge exchange on beam ions in MAST-U

A model for simulating charge exchange (CX) of fast ions with background atoms in magnetically confined fusion plasmas has been implemented in the ASCOT orbit-following code. The model was verified by comparing simulated reaction mean free paths to analytical values across a range of fusion-relevant parameters. ASCOT was used to simulate beam ions slowing down in the presence of CX reactions in a MAST-U target scenario. ASCOT predicts the CX-induced loss of beam power to be 22%, which agrees to within 15% with the TRANSP prediction. Because of CX, plasma heating and current drive by beam ions are strongly reduced towards the edge. However, an overall lower but noticeable increase of up to 20% in current drive is predicted closer to the core. The simulated deposition of fast CX atoms on the wall is concentrated around the outer midplane, with estimated peak power loads of 70–80 kWm-2 on the central poloidal field coils (P5) and the vacuum vessel wall between them. This analysis demonstrates that ASCOT can be used to simulate fast ions in fusion plasmas where CX reactions play a significant role, e.g., in spherical tokamaks and stellarators.

The Digitalization in the COVID-19 Era

In December 2019, a new viral pneumonia called COVID-19 appeared in Wuhan, China causing a health crisis that then turned into an economic and social crisis. Since then, entire sectors of the economy have been slowing down, forcing them to integrate innovative digital processes to mitigate the negative impact of this crisis. In this regard, the purpose of the chapter is to initiate a reflection on digitization processes based on a review of the literature to help explain the concept. This work allowed spotlighting the existing research on digitalization through practical case studies in business, education, and health systems, and how organizations perceive digitalization during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors analyze how digital platforms can increase the survival rate of businesses in times of crisis and ensure the continuity of customers' access to the various goods and services. The purpose behind this is to serve as a basis for further empirical research for academics and improve the knowledge base by providing insight into the efforts of the sectors studied.

Однородные и неоднородные ширины линий в оптических спектрах кристалла Y-=SUB=-2-=/SUB=-SiO-=SUB=-5-=/SUB=- : -=SUP=-171-=/SUP=-Yb-=SUP=-3+-=/SUP=-

Rare earth ions are actively investigated as optically addressable spin systems for quantum technologies thanks to their long optical and spin coherence lifetimes. 171Yb3+, which has 1/2 electron and nuclear spins, recently raised interest for its simple hyperfine structure that moreover can result in long coherence lifetimes at zero magnetic field, an unusual property for paramagnetic rare earth ions. Here, we report on the optical inhomogeneous and homogeneous linewidths in 171Yb3+:Y2SiO5 (site 2) for different doping concentrations. While inhomogeneous linewidth is not correlated to 171Yb3+ concentration, the homogeneous one strongly decreases between 10 and 2 ppm doping level, reaching 255 Hz at 3 K. This is attributed to a slowing down of 171Yb3+ ground state spin flip-flops.

Blockchain Applications in the Energy Industry

The current energy transition from a fossil-fuel-based economy to a zero-carbon has significantly accelerated in recent years, as the largest emitters have committed to achieving carbon-neutral goals in the next 20-30 years. The energy industry transition is characterized by modernization through digital technologies, increased renewable energy generation, and environmental sustainability. Blockchain technology can play a significant role in providing secure digital distributed platforms facilitating digitization, decarbonization, and decentralization of the energy systems. Several promising blockchain applications in the energy sector are under research and development, including peer-to-peer energy trading; carbon monitoring, management, and trading; and IoT-enabled electric grid management. However, several challenges are slowing down the commercialization of these applications, including outdated legislation and regulations, slow pace of adaptation from the traditional energy industry, and risks associated with the new, untested technology.

Means and Meanings of Research Collaboration in the Face of a Suffering Earth: A Landscape of Questions

The Earth is speaking to us in its own language of suffering—rising average temperatures, increasingly extreme weather conditions, mass extinction of species and so on. Academic habits of travelling long distances and/or frequently, as many of us have, affect the Earth and its inhabitants. This chapter argues the need for changing habits not just by developing technical infrastructure but through developing awareness among academics of the issues involved including the dynamics that may be slowing down change. The chapter contributes by discussing the means and meanings of research collaboration in this context. We explore the role of collaboration across distance in scholarship (Erkenntnis), various ways (technical and otherwise) that materialities can affect remote collaboration and reflect on the ethics of commitments intrinsic to academic work. The challenge facing academics is to integrate these three aspects—sharing, the material/technical and the ethical—in developing ways of working which are responsive to the Earth crises. To support this, we indicate a set of questions which can be helpful to consider when, as scholars, we make decisions about why and how to collaborate.

A retrospective observational study to investigate the effect of frailty on outcomes of older adults admitted with major trauma.

The majority of major injuries admitted to hospital are now in older people, with a fall from standing height being the most common reason for injury. Our study will look at older adults admitted to hospital with serious traumatic injuries across England. It will aim to work out firstly if there is an effect of frailty on peoples' survival after injury. Frailty is the reserve a person has to cope with illness and is a measure of a person slowing down over time usually due to the collection of lots of health problems. Secondly, we will look at if being seen by an old age specialist (geriatrician) has an effect on a person's chances of surviving their injuries. The records we will look at are held collected routinely and held by a national database run by the Trauma and Audit Research Network (TARN) from the University of Manchester. They collect information from the 22 centres of major trauma excellence around the country and help researchers to work with them to access the anonymous data for specific research questions. We aim to use these results to help clinicians and health systems to improve how the fund and deliver care for older people.