The perspective of current and retired world class, elite and national athletes on the inclusion and eligibility of transgender athletes in elite sport.

There has been limited empirical study allowing athletes to voice their opinions on transgender participation in elite sport. This study surveyed 175 national, elite and world class athletes eligible to compete in the female category regarding transgender inclusion and eligibility. The study compared current Olympic versus current Olympic Recognised sports, elite versus world class, and current versus retired Olympic sport athletes. Most athletes favoured biological sex categorisation (58%) and considered it unfair for trans women to compete in the female category, except for precision sports. This view was held most strongly by world class athletes regarding their own sport (77% unfair, 15% fair). For trans men inclusion in the male category, most athletes considered it fair, except for Olympic sport athletes regarding contact sports (49% unfair, 27% fair) and sports heavily reliant on physical capacity (53% unfair, 29% fair). Notwithstanding those views, athletes (81%) believed sporting bodies should improve inclusivity for transgender athletes. Opinion varied somewhat according to career stage, competitive level and sport type. Nevertheless, athletes in the present study favoured categorisation by biological sex and did not support trans women eligibility for the female category in sports reliant on performance-related biological factors that differ between sexes.

Are there Sensitive Periods for Skill Development in Male Adolescent Basketball Players?

PURPOSE: Although spurts in physical capacities during adolescence are well-known, little is known about the existence of such spurts in sport-specific skill development, especially during the period of rapid growth in stature. Our aims were to examine the timing, intensity, and sequence of basketball-specific skill spurts aligned with biological [years from peak height velocity (PHV)] rather than chronological age. We then defined putative sensitive periods (windows of optimal development) for each skill aligned to the adolescent growth spurt. METHODS: Altogether, 160 adolescent male basketballers, aged 11-15 years, were tested bi-annually over three consecutive years. The years from attainment of PHV were estimated and six skill tests were aligned to each year from PHV in 3-month intervals. Skill velocities were estimated using a non-smooth polynomial model. RESULTS: Maximal gains in slalom dribble occurred 12 months prior to PHV attainment (intensity = 0.18 m·s-1·year-1), whereas in speed shot shooting (intensity = 9.91 pts·year-1), passing (intensity = 19.13 pts·year-1), and slalom sprint (intensity = 0.19 m·s-1·year-1) these skill spurts were attained 6 months prior to PHV attainment. The mean gains in control dribble (intensity = 0.10 m·s-1·year-1) and defensive movement (intensity = 0.12 m·s-1·year-1) peaks coincided with attainment of PHV. We identified different sized windows for optimal development for each skill. CONCLUSIONS: Peak spurts in skill development, for most basketball skills, were attained at the same time as PHV. The multiple peaks observed within the defined windows of optimal development suggest that there is room for skill improvement even if gains might be greater earlier rather than later in practice. Our findings highlight the need to make coaches aware of where their players are relative to the attainment of PHV since different skills appear to develop differently relative to PHV. Such knowledge may help in designing more relevant training regimes that incorporate the athlete's current growth status so that skill development can be maximized.

Walking (and talking) the plank: dual-task performance costs in a virtual balance-threatening environment.

We evaluated the effects of engaging in extemporaneous speech in healthy young adults while they walked in a virtual environment meant to elicit low or high levels of mobility-related anxiety. We expected that mobility-related anxiety imposed by a simulated balance threat (i.e., virtual elevation) would impair walking behavior and lead to greater dual-task costs. Altogether, 15 adults (age = 25.6 ± 4.7 yrs, 7 women) walked at their self-selected speed within a VR environment that simulated a low (ground) and high elevation (15 m) setting while speaking extemporaneously (dual-task) or not speaking (single-task). Likert-scale ratings of cognitive and somatic anxiety, confidence, and mental effort were evaluated and gait speed, step length, and step width, as well as the variability of each, was calculated for every trial. Silent speech pauses (> 150 ms) were determined from audio recordings to infer the cognitive costs of extemporaneous speech planning at low and high virtual elevation. Results indicated that the presence of a balance threat and the inclusion of a concurrent speech task both perturbed gait kinematics, but the virtual height illusion led to increased anxiety and mental effort and a decrease in confidence. The extemporaneous speech pauses were longer on average when walking, but no effects of virtual elevation were reported. Trends toward interaction effects arose in self-reported responses, with participants reporting more comfort walking at virtual heights if they engaged in extemporaneous speech. Walking at virtual elevation and while talking may have independent and significant effects on gait; both effects were robust and did not support an interaction when combined (i.e., walking and talking at virtual heights). The nature of extemporaneous speech may have distracted participants from the detrimental effects of walking in anxiety-inducing settings.

The impacts of rising vapour pressure deficit in natural and managed ecosystems.

An exponential rise in the atmospheric vapour pressure deficit (VPD) is among the most consequential impacts of climate change in terrestrial ecosystems. Rising VPD has negative and cascading effects on nearly all aspects of plant function including photosynthesis, water status, growth and survival. These responses are exacerbated by land-atmosphere interactions that couple VPD to soil water and govern the evolution of drought, affecting a range of ecosystem services including carbon uptake, biodiversity, the provisioning of water resources and crop yields. However, despite the global nature of this phenomenon, research on how to incorporate these impacts into resilient management regimes is largely in its infancy, due in part to the entanglement of VPD trends with those of other co-evolving climate drivers. Here, we review the mechanistic bases of VPD impacts at a range of spatial scales, paying particular attention to the independent and interactive influence of VPD in the context of other environmental changes. We then evaluate the consequences of these impacts within key management contexts, including water resources, croplands, wildfire risk mitigation and management of natural grasslands and forests. We conclude with recommendations describing how management regimes could be altered to mitigate the otherwise highly deleterious consequences of rising VPD.

Enhancing emotion regulation with an in situ socially assistive robot among LGBTQ+ youth with self-harm ideation: protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Purrble, a socially assistive robot, was codesigned with children to support in situ emotion regulation. Preliminary evidence has found that LGBTQ+ youth are receptive to Purrble and find it to be an acceptable intervention to assist with emotion dysregulation and their experiences of self-harm. The present study is designed to evaluate the impact of access to Purrble among LGBTQ+ youth who have self-harmful thoughts, when compared with waitlist controls. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The study is a single-blind, randomised control trial comparing access to the Purrble robot with waitlist control. A total of 168 LGBTQ+ youth aged 16-25 years with current self-harmful ideation will be recruited, all based within the UK. The primary outcome is emotion dysregulation (Difficulties with Emotion Regulation Scale-8) measured weekly across a 13-week period, including three pre-deployment timepoints. Secondary outcomes include self-harm (Self-Harm Questionnaire), anxiety (Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7) and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9). We will conduct analyses using linear mixed models to assess primary and secondary hypotheses. Intervention participants will have unlimited access to Purrble over the deployment period, which can be used as much or as little as they like. After all assessments, control participants will receive their Purrble, with all participants keeping the robot after the end of the study. After the study has ended, a subset of participants will be invited to participate in semistructured interviews to explore engagement and appropriation of Purrble, considering the young people's own views of Purrble as an intervention device. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was received from King's College London (RESCM-22/23-34570). Findings will be disseminated in peer review open access journals and at academic conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT06025942.

Associations between age-related differences in occipital alpha power and the broadband parameters of the EEG power spectrum: A cross-sectional cohort study.

In adulthood, neurological structure and function are often affected by aging, with negative implications for daily life as well as laboratory-based tasks. Some of these changes include decreased efficiency modulating cortical activity and lower signal-to-noise ratios in neural processing (as inferred from surface electroencephalography). To better understand mechanisms influencing age-related changes in cortical activity, we explored the effects of aging on narrow-band alpha power (7.5-12.5 Hz) and broadband/aperiodic components that span a wider range (1.5-30.5 Hz) over the occipital region during eyes-open and eyes-closed wakeful rest in 19 healthy young adults (18-35 years) and 21 community-dwelling older adults (59+ years). Older adults exhibited a smaller change in alpha power across conditions compared to younger adults. Older adults also showed flatter aperiodic slopes in both conditions. These changes in narrow-band alpha are consistent with previous work and suggest that older adults may have a reduced ability to modulate state-specific activity. Differences in the aperiodic slope suggest age-related changes in the signal-noise-ratio in cortical oscillations. However, the relationship between narrow-band alpha modulation and the aperiodic slope was unclear, warranting further investigation into how these variables relate to each other in the aging process. In summary, aging is associated with a broadband flattening of the EEG power spectrum and reduced state-specific modulation of narrow-band alpha power, but these changes appear to be (at least partially) independent of each other. The present findings suggest that separate mechanisms may underlie age-related differences in aperiodic power and narrow-band oscillations.

Skill and experience impact neural activity during global and local biological motion processing.

During biological motion perception, individuals with perceptual experience learn to use more global processing, simultaneously extracting information from multiple body segments. Less experienced observers may use more local processing of individual body segments. The parietal lobe (e.g., alpha and beta power) has been shown to be critical to global and local static stimulus perception. Therefore, in this paper, we examined how skill impacts motion processing by assessing behavioral and neural responses to degrading global or local motion information for soccer penalty kicks. Skilled (N = 21) and less skilled (N = 19) soccer players anticipated temporally occluded videos of penalty kicks under normal, blurred (degraded local information), or spatially occluded (hips-only; degraded global information) viewing conditions. EEG was used to measure parietal alpha and beta power. Skilled players outperformed less skilled players, albeit both skill groups were less accurate in the blurred and hips-only conditions. Skilled performers showed significant decreases in bilateral parietal beta power in the hips-only condition, suggesting a greater reliance on global motion information under normal viewing conditions. Additionally, the hips-only condition elicited significantly greater beta relative to alpha power (beta - alpha), lower beta power, and lower alpha power than the control condition for both skill groups, suggesting spatial occlusion elicited a shift towards more local processing. Our novel findings demonstrate that skill and experience impact how motion is processed.

Investigating the Feasibility, Acceptability, and Appropriation of a Socially Assistive Robot Among Minority Youth at Risk of Self-Harm: Results of 2 Mixed Methods Pilot Studies.

BACKGROUND: Minority youth are at an increased risk of experiencing self-harmful thoughts and behaviors. However, there is limited evidence of successful interventions to support young people in the moment of their distress. Digital interventions are considered a potential solution for providing in-the-moment support for those at risk of adverse mental health and self-harm. OBJECTIVE: These pilot studies aim to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a new in situ intervention tool, Purrble, among two broad groups of minority youth: (1) lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and similar minority (LGBTQ+) youth and (2) racial and ethnic minority youth. Purrble was designed to support in-situ emotion regulation (ER) support when individuals are facing emotionally challenging situations. METHODS: This study consisted of 2 mixed methods pilot studies that followed the same mixed methods design, including 3 weeks of daily and weekly surveys and optional follow-up interviews. Inclusion criteria were (1) aged between 16 and 25 years, (2) part of a minority group, (3) had experiences of self-harmful thoughts or behaviors or elevated symptoms of depression or anxiety, and (4) living in the United Kingdom at the time of the study. The primary outcomes were (1) the feasibility of Purrble as an intervention among pilot samples (analyzed by consent rate, retention rate, adherence to surveys, and engagement with the device) and (2) the acceptability and appropriation of Purrble across pilot studies as a tool to support ER in situ (thematically analyzed qualitative open-ended questions and interview data). The secondary outcomes were descriptive pilot data concerning the mental health outcomes in each sample. RESULTS: In total, 21 LGBTQ+ young people participated in pilot study 1, with 86% (n=18) completing the baseline and 3 weeks of daily surveys. These young people maintained engagement with Purrble across deployment, across which period there was a decrease in self-harmful thoughts and anxiety symptoms. A total of 19 ethnic and racial minority youths participated in pilot study 2, and 84% (n=16) completed the study. Although pilot study 2 participants also maintained engagement with Purrble across deployment, this was to a lesser degree than participants of pilot study 1, and perceived mental health outcomes did not indicate potential change associated with the device. The thematic analysis indicated three superordinate themes: (1) stopping the self-harm cycle, (2) adopting ER strategies, and (3) stages of change. CONCLUSIONS: These were the first pilot studies of a novel intervention that aimed to provide in situ ER support for young people at risk of self-harm. Both quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that young people found Purrble to be a feasible and acceptable intervention, as they effectively incorporated the device into their ER practices. These engagements with Purrble were described as interrupting the cycle of self-harmful ideation and behavior.

Intrauterine growth restriction in piglets modulates postnatal immune function and hepatic transcriptional responses independently of energy intake.

Introduction: Insufficient prenatal nutrition can affect fetal development and lead to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). The aim of this study was to investigate hepatic transcriptional responses and innate immune function in piglets suffering from IUGR compared to normal-sized piglets at 3 days of age and explore whether the provision of an energy-rich supplement at birth could modulate these parameters. Methods: A total of 68 piglets were included in the study. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were harvested for LPS stimulation, and organs were harvested post-mortem to quantify relative weights. Liver tissue was utilized for RNA sequencing coupled with gene-set enrichment analysis. Results: IUGR resulted in increased expression of genes such as PDK4 and substantial alterations in transcriptional pathways related to metabolic activity (e.g., citric acid and Krebs cycles), but these changes were equivalent in piglets given an energy-rich supplement or not. Transcriptomic analysis and serum biochemistry suggested altered glucose metabolism and a shift toward oxidation of fatty acids. IUGR piglets also exhibited suppression of genes related to innate immune function (e.g., CXCL12) and pathways related to cell proliferation (e.g., WNT and PDGF signaling). Moreover, they produced less IL-1ß in response to LPS stimulation and had lower levels of blood eosinophils than normal-sized piglets. Discussion: Taken together, our results indicate that IUGR results in early-life alterations in metabolism and immunity that may not be easily restored by the provision of exogenous energy supplementation.

Feasibility, Perceived Impact, and Acceptability of a Socially Assistive Robot to Support Emotion Regulation With Highly Anxious University Students: Mixed Methods Open Trial.

BACKGROUND: Mental health difficulties among university students have been rising rapidly over the last decade, and the demand for university mental health services commonly far exceeds available resources. Digital interventions are seen as one potential solution to these challenges. However, as in other mental health contexts, digital programs often face low engagement and uptake, and the field lacks usable, engaging, evidence-supported mental health interventions that may be used flexibly when students need them most. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a new, in situ intervention tool (Purrble) among university students experiencing anxiety. As an intervention, Purrble was designed to provide in situ support for emotion regulation (ER)-a well-known transdiagnostic construct-directly in the moments when individuals are facing emotionally challenging situations. A secondary aim is to consider the perceived impact of Purrble on youth mental health, as reported by students over a 7-week deployment. METHODS: A mixed methods open trial was conducted with 78 under- and postgraduate students at Oxford University. Participants were recruited based on moderate to high levels of anxiety measured by Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 at baseline (mean 16.09, SD 3.03). All participants had access to Purrble for 7 weeks during the spring term with data on their perceived anxiety, emotion dysregulation, ER self-efficacy, and engagement with the intervention collected at baseline (pre), week 4 (mid), and week 8 (postintervention). Qualitative responses were also collected at the mid- and postintervention points. RESULTS: The findings demonstrated a sustained engagement with Purrble over the 7-week period, with the acceptability further supported by the qualitative data indicating that students accepted Purrble and that Purrble was well-integrated into their daily routines. Exploratory quantitative data analysis indicated that Purrble was associated with reductions in student anxiety (dz=0.96, 95% CI 0.62-1.29) and emotion dysregulation (dz=0.69, 95% CI 0.38-0.99), and with an increase in ER self-efficacy (dz=-0.56, 95% CI -0.86 to -0.26). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first trial of a simple physical intervention that aims to provide ongoing ER support to university students. Both quantitative and qualitative data suggest that Purrble is an acceptable and feasible intervention among students, the engagement with which can be sustained at a stable level across a 7-week period while retaining a perceived benefit for those who use it (n=32, 61% of our sample). The consistency of use is particularly promising given that there was no clinician engagement or further support provided beyond Purrble being delivered to the students. These results show promise for an innovative intervention model, which could be complementary to the existing interventions.

Scaling up numbers and competency of graduating medical and dental students in Nigeria: Need to improve medical trainers' competency in teaching.

Background: With the increasing medical brain drain in Nigeria, there is a need to train and graduate more doctors to fill in the gaps created to mitigate the effects. To meet this goal, the trainers need to evolve and have the competency to deliver quality training for many more enrollees in medical schools. Aim: This study aimed to gather information about the perception of medical teachers' need to obtain certification in medical education and what this will achieve in scaling up the competency and number of graduating medical doctors. Subjects and Methods: Medical teachers in Nigeria participated in this mixed (quantitative and qualitative) study. Four hundred medical consultants and teachers were randomly selected and sent a semi-structured pre-validated questionnaire; also, a panel discussion was conducted with six medical teachers with other special assignments in universities and postgraduate colleges. Quantitative data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 24, differences in proportions were calculated using the Chi-square test, and P values <0.05 were considered significant. Results: Two hundred and thirty-eight (59.5%) participants completed the form, 63 (26.5%) had practiced for <5 years, and 114 (47.9%) had >10 years of practice experience. A majority of 168 (70.6%) were physician lecturers in federal or state universities, and 15.5% had obtained certifications of any kind in medical education. Over 80% perceived that medical education training should not be a prerequisite to teach, but a similar percentage believed that faculty medical education training can help scale up the training competency and the number of graduating medical doctors. Conclusion: To scale up the number and competency of graduating medical doctors, medical teachers need to acquire core teaching competency. The respondents and discussants believe that when these core teaching competencies have been fully developed, it will be easier to increase the number of medical students' enrollees, teach them their curriculum through innovations, and graduate them with improved competencies.

Gut bacteria promote proliferation in benign S/RG/C2 colorectal tumour cells, and promote proliferation, migration and invasion in malignant HCT116 cells.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a significant global health burden with a rising incidence worldwide. Distinct bacterial populations are associated with CRC development and progression, and it is thought that the relationship between CRC and associated gut bacteria changes during the progression from normal epithelium to benign adenoma and eventually malignant carcinoma and metastasis. This study compared the interaction of CRC-associated species Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis, Enterococcus faecalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum and one probiotic species, Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 with a colorectal adenoma (S/RG/C2) and a colorectal adenocarcinoma (HCT116) derived cell line. Gentamicin protection assays showed that all species displayed higher attachment to benign tumour monolayers when compared to malignant monolayers. However, invasion of 3/4 species was higher in the HCT116 cells than in the adenoma cells. All species were found to persist within tumour cell monolayers for a minimum of 48 h under standard aerobic cell culture conditions, with persistence significantly higher in HCT116 cells. Downstream assays were performed to analyse the behaviour of S/RG/C2 and HCT116 cells post-infection and revealed that all species increased the tumour cell yield of both cell lines. The migratory and invasive potential of HCT116 cells was increased after infection with F. nucleatum; however, no species significantly altered these characteristics in S/RG/C2 cells. These results add to the growing evidence for the involvement of microorganisms in CRC progression and suggest that these interactions may be dependent on tumour cell-specific characteristics.

Gritting One's way to success - Grit explains skill in elite youth soccer players beyond (deliberate) practice.

Practice is one of the most important predictors of skill. To become an expert, performers must engage in practice for a prolonged time to develop the psychological characteristics necessary for outstanding performance. Deliberate practice (DP), that is focused repetitive activities with corrective feedback, is particularly beneficial for skill development. The amount of accumulated DP differentiates experts and novices. However, the predictive strength of DP weakens considerably when it comes to differentiating between differently skilled experts, leaving a way clear for other non-practice related factors to exercise their influence. In this paper, we demonstrate using a large sample (388) of elite youth soccer players that one such factor, the personality trait of grit, predicts expertise level both directly and indirectly. Grittier players accumulated more time in coach-led team practice, the activity, which is arguably closest to DP in team sports, which in turn predicted the skill level. Other practice activities, such as self-led training or playing with peers, were not predictive of skill level, neither were they influenced by grit. Grit, however, continued to exert a direct positive influence on the skill level of players even after accounting for the hours of DP accumulated. Overall, a standard deviation of change in the grit score resulted in at least a third of standard deviation improvement in skill. Our findings highlight the need for the inclusion of additional factors in theoretical frameworks in situations where the predictive power of traditional expertise factors, such as practice, is limited.

Skilled Performers Show Right Parietal Lateralization during Anticipation of Volleyball Attacks.

Global and local biological motion processing are likely influenced by an observer's perceptual experience. Skilled athletes anticipating an opponent's movements use globally distributed motion information, while less skilled athletes focus on single kinematic cues. Published reports have demonstrated that attention can be primed globally or locally before perceptual tasks; such an intervention could highlight motion processing mechanisms used by skilled and less skilled observers. In this study, we examined skill differences in biological motion processing using attentional priming. Skilled (N = 16) and less skilled (N = 16) players anticipated temporally occluded videos of volleyball attacks after being primed using a Navon matching task while parietal EEG was measured. Skilled players were more accurate than less skilled players across priming conditions. Global priming improved performance in both skill groups. Skilled players showed significantly reduced alpha and beta power in the right compared to left parietal region, but brain activity was not affected by the priming interventions. Our findings highlight the importance of right parietal dominance for skilled performers, which may be functional for inhibiting left hemispheric local processing or enhancing visual spatial attention for dynamic visual scenes. Further work is needed to systematically determine the function of this pattern of brain activity during skilled anticipation.

Effective practice and instruction: A skill acquisition framework for excellence.

We revisit an agenda that was outlined in a previous paper in this journal focusing on the importance of skill acquisition research in enhancing practice and instruction in sport. In this current narrative review, we reflect on progress made since our original attempt to highlight several potential myths that appeared to exist in coaching, implying the existence of a theory-practice divide. Most notably, we present five action points that would impact positively on coaches and practitioners working to improve skill learning across sports, as well as suggesting directions for research. We discuss the importance of practice quality in enhancing learning and relate this concept to notions of optimising challenge. We discuss how best to assess learning, the right balance between repetition and practice that is specific to competition, the relationship between practice conditions, instructions, and individual differences, and why a more "hands-off" approach to instruction may have advantages over more "hands-on" methods. These action points are considered as a broad framework for advancing skill acquisition for excellence (SAFE) in applied practice. We conclude by arguing the need for increased collaboration between researchers, coaches, and other sport practitioners.

Climate change will accelerate the high-end risk of compound drought and heatwave events.

Compound drought and heatwave (CDHW) events have garnered increased attention due to their significant impacts on agriculture, energy, water resources, and ecosystems. We quantify the projected future shifts in CDHW characteristics (such as frequency, duration, and severity) due to continued anthropogenic warming relative to the baseline recent observed period (1982 to 2019). We combine weekly drought and heatwave information for 26 climate divisions across the globe, employing historical and projected model output from eight Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 GCMs and three Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Statistically significant trends are revealed in the CDHW characteristics for both recent observed and model simulated future period (2020 to 2099). East Africa, North Australia, East North America, Central Asia, Central Europe, and Southeastern South America show the greatest increase in frequency through the late 21st century. The Southern Hemisphere displays a greater projected increase in CDHW occurrence, while the Northern Hemisphere displays a greater increase in CDHW severity. Regional warmings play a significant role in CDHW changes in most regions. These findings have implications for minimizing the impacts of extreme events and developing adaptation and mitigation policies to cope with increased risk on water, energy, and food sectors in critical geographical regions.

A user evaluation of speech/phrase recognition software in critically ill patients: a DECIDE-AI feasibility study.

OBJECTIVES: Evaluating effectiveness of speech/phrase recognition software in critically ill patients with speech impairments. DESIGN: Prospective study. SETTING: Tertiary hospital critical care unit in the northwest of England. PARTICIPANTS: 14 patients with tracheostomies, 3 female and 11 male. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Evaluation of dynamic time warping (DTW) and deep neural networks (DNN) methods in a speech/phrase recognition application. Using speech/phrase recognition app for voice impaired (SRAVI), patients attempted mouthing various supported phrases with recordings evaluated by both DNN and DTW processing methods. Then, a trio of potential recognition phrases was displayed on the screen, ranked from first to third in order of likelihood. RESULTS: A total of 616 patient recordings were taken with 516 phrase identifiable recordings. The overall results revealed a total recognition accuracy across all three ranks of 86% using the DNN method. The rank 1 recognition accuracy of the DNN method was 75%. The DTW method had a total recognition accuracy of 74%, with a rank 1 accuracy of 48%. CONCLUSION: This feasibility evaluation of a novel speech/phrase recognition app using SRAVI demonstrated a good correlation between spoken phrases and app recognition. This suggests that speech/phrase recognition technology could be a therapeutic option to bridge the gap in communication in critically ill patients. WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS TOPIC: Communication can be attempted using visual charts, eye gaze boards, alphabet boards, speech/phrase reading, gestures and speaking valves in critically ill patients with speech impairments. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS: Deep neural networks and dynamic time warping methods can be used to analyse lip movements and identify intended phrases. HOW THIS STUDY MIGHT AFFECT RESEARCH, PRACTICE AND POLICY: Our study shows that speech/phrase recognition software has a role to play in bridging the communication gap in speech impairment.

A long-period radio transient active for three decades.

Several long-period radio transients have recently been discovered, with strongly polarized coherent radio pulses appearing on timescales between tens to thousands of seconds1,2. In some cases, the radio pulses have been interpreted as coming from rotating neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, known as magnetars; the origin of other, occasionally periodic and less-well-sampled radio transients is still debated3. Coherent periodic radio emission is usually explained by rotating dipolar magnetic fields and pair-production mechanisms, but such models do not easily predict radio emission from such slowly rotating neutron stars and maintain it for extended times. On the other hand, highly magnetic isolated white dwarfs would be expected to have long spin periodicities, but periodic coherent radio emission has not yet been directly detected from these sources. Here we report observations of a long-period (21 min) radio transient, which we have labelled GPM J1839-10. The pulses vary in brightness by two orders of magnitude, last between 30 and 300 s and have quasiperiodic substructure. The observations prompted a search of radio archives and we found that the source has been repeating since at least 1988. The archival data enabled constraint of the period derivative to <3.6 × 10-13 s s-1, which is at the very limit of any classical theoretical model that predicts dipolar radio emission from an isolated neutron star.

Application of the Alivecor KardiaMobile smartphone modulated ECG device for use in horses.

Electrocardiography is the method used to monitor the electrical impulses in the heart. These diagnostics are increasingly making use of smartphone-based technologies. The objective of this research was to determine whether the Alivecor KardiaMobile (ECGAKM) smartphone-modulated electrocardiographic device, a novel ECG device, can be used to obtain reliable electrocardiogram (ECG) readings in horses. The device was initially tested in 36 Nooitgedacht pony mares to determine the best site of application, method of skin preparation, and ECGAKM device orientation for reliable ECG tracings. Once the most reliable site for ECG acquisition was determined, the device was then applied, in this manner, to 31 Nooitgedacht pony mares and compared with a standard telemetric ECG system (ECGTV). The ECGAKM device was best applied in the fourth intercostal space on the left hemithorax in a vertical orientation and with the skin dampened with 70% ethanol. Mean values determined for RR and QT intervals between the ECGAKMS and ECGTV were not significantly different, however, mean values for the duration of the QRS complexes were significantly different for the two devices. There is acceptable agreement between the ECGTV and ECGAKM devices with regards to the measurement of the PQ; RR and QT intervals but not the QRS duration. The automatically calculated heart rate is not an accurate measure of true heart rate. The Alivecor KardiaMobile (ECGAKM) device can be considered as a simplified screening ECG device in situations where the more standardised system is either unavailable or impractical, but has some limitations.

Lifetime risk and genetic predisposition to post-traumatic OA of the knee in the UK Biobank.

OBJECTIVE: Acute knee injury is associated with post-traumatic OA (PTOA). Very little is known about the genome-wide associations of PTOA when compared with idiopathic OA (iOA). Our objective was to describe the development of knee OA after a knee injury and its genetic associations in UK Biobank (UKB). DESIGN: Clinically significant structural knee injuries in those ≤50 years were identified from electronic health records and self-reported data in 502,409 UKB participants. Time-to-first knee osteoarthritis (OA) code was compared in injured cases and age-/sex-matched non-injured controls using Cox Proportional Hazards models. A time-to-OA genome-wide association study (GWAS) sought evidence for PTOA risk variants 6 months to 20 years following injury. Evidence for associations of two iOA polygenic risk scores (PRS) was sought. RESULTS: Of 4233 knee injury cases, 1896 (44.8%) were female (mean age at injury 34.1 years [SD 10.4]). Over a median of 30.2 (IQR 19.5-45.4) years, 1096 (25.9%) of injured cases developed knee OA. The overall hazards ratio (HR) for knee OA after injury was 1.81 (1.70,1.93), P = 8.9 × 10-74. Female sex and increasing age at injury were associated with knee OA following injury (HR 1.15 [1.02,1.30];1.07 [1,07,1.07] respectively). OA risk was highest in the first 5 years after injury (HR 3.26 [2.67,3.98]), persisting for 40 years. In 3074 knee injury cases included in the time-to-OA GWAS, no variants reached genome-wide significance. iOA PRS was not associated with time-to-OA (HR 0.43 [0.02,8.41]). CONCLUSIONS: Increasing age at injury and female sex appear to be associated with future development of PTOA in UKB, the risk of which was greatest in the 5 years after injury. Further international efforts towards a better-powered meta-analysis will definitively elucidate genetic similarities and differences of PTOA and iOA.