Clinical Decision Support Using Speech Signal Analysis: Systematic Scoping Review of Neurological Disorders.

Background: Digital biomarkers are increasingly used in clinical decision support for various health conditions. Speech features as digital biomarkers can offer insights into underlying physiological processes due to the complexity of speech production. This process involves respiration, phonation, articulation, and resonance, all of which rely on specific motor systems for the preparation and execution of speech.

The mediating role of social support on the link between adverse childhood experiences and adult mental health.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with adult mental health, especially anxiety and depression. We aimed to explain these relationships by investigating perceived social support as a mediating factor. In this model, it is proposed that individuals who experience more ACEs will have less perceived social support in adulthood, which in turn will increase reported anxiety and depression symptoms.

A Comprehensive Multifunctional Approach for Measuring Parkinson's Disease Severity.

Objectives:  This research study aims to advance the staging of Parkinson's disease (PD) by incorporating machine learning to assess and include a broader multifunctional spectrum of neurocognitive symptoms in the staging schemes beyond motor-centric assessments. Specifically, we provide a novel framework to modernize and personalize PD staging more objectively by proposing a hybrid feature scoring approach.

Methods:  We recruited 37 individuals diagnosed with PD, each of whom completed a series of tablet-based neurocognitive tests assessing motor, memory, speech, executive functions, and tasks ranging in complexity from single to multifunctional.

Predicting long-term sleep deprivation using wearable sensors and health surveys.

Sufficient sleep is essential for individual well-being. Inadequate sleep has been shown to have significant negative impacts on our attention, cognition, and mood. The measurement of sleep from in-bed physiological signals has progressed to where commercial devices already incorporate this functionality.

Mental Health Monitoring: Design Concept of a Smartphone Application.

Mental health (MH) has become a global issue. Digital phenotyping in mental healthcare provides a highly effective, scaled, cost-effective approach to handling global MH problems. We propose an MH monitoring application.

Theoretical Underpinnings of a Model to Reduce Polypharmacy and Its Negative Health Effects: Introducing the Team Approach to Polypharmacy Evaluation and Reduction (TAPER).

Background: Polypharmacy, particularly among older adults, is gaining recognition as an important risk to health. The harmful effects on health arise from disease-drug and drug-drug interactions, the cumulative burden of side effects from multiple medications and the burden to the patient. Single-disease clinical guidelines fail to consider the complex reality of optimising treatments for patients with multiple morbidities and medications.

Classification of Parkinson's disease and its stages using machine learning.

As digital health technology becomes more pervasive, machine learning (ML) provides a robust way to analyze and interpret the myriad of collected features. The purpose of this preliminary work was to use ML classification to assess the benefits and relevance of neurocognitive features both tablet-based assessments and self-reported metrics, as they relate to Parkinson's Disease (PD) and its stages [Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) Stages 1-5]. Further, this work aims to compare perceived versus sensor-based neurocognitive abilities.

Persistence and gazing at humans during an unsolvable task in dogs: The influence of ownership duration, living situation, and prior experience with humans.

The experiences that domestic dogs have with humans take many forms. We hypothesized that more experience with humans would lead to greater dependence on humans in problem-solving situations. We used the unsolvable task to compare persistence and gazing in dogs with differing degrees of experience with humans: 1) dogs living in a home for a year or more; 2) dogs living in a home for less than a year (including foster dogs); and 3) shelter dogs.

Towards Symptom-Specific Intervention Recommendation Systems.

Background: Mobile devices and their capabilities (e.g., device sensors and human-device interactions) are increasingly being considered for use in clinical assessments and disease monitoring due to their ability to provide objective, repeatable, and more accurate measures of neurocognitive performance.

Team approach to polypharmacy evaluation and reduction: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Polypharmacy in older adults can be associated with negative outcomes including falls, impaired cognition, reduced quality of life, and general and functional decline. It is not clear to what extent these are reversible if the number of medications is reduced. Primary care does not have a systematic approach for reducing inappropriate polypharmacy, and there are few, if any, approaches that account for the patient's priorities and preferences.

Negative Effects of COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Mandates on Physical Intervention Outcomes: A Preliminary Study.

Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, beneficial physical intervention classes for individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) were cancelled.

Objective: To understand effects of the COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate and the inability to participate in recommended and structured physical interventions as a consequence of these mandates, specifically designed mobile assessments were used that collected both self-reporting information and objective task-based metrics of neurocognitive functions to assess symptom changes for individuals with PD.

Methods: Self-reporting questionnaires focusing on overall quality of life (e.

Pathogens associated with pleuritic pig lungs at an abattoir in Queensland Australia.

Objective: Pleurisy in pigs has economic impacts in the production stage and at slaughter. This study sought to establish if some micro-organisms can be found in high numbers in lungs with pleurisy by assessing batches of pigs at an abattoir in Queensland Australia.

Design: Samples of lung (including trachea/bronchus and lymph nodes) from a maximum of 5 pleurisy affected pigs were collected from 46 batches of pigs representing 46 Queensland farms.

Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 Receptor Agonist (GLP1RA) Exposure and Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review of Population-Based Observational Studies.

Introduction: Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP1RAs) are licensed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D). They have been shown to be safe (from the cardiovascular (CV) perspective) and effective (in terms of glycaemia, and in some cases, reducing CV events) in extensive randomised controlled trials (RCTs). However, there remain concerns regarding the generalisability of these findings (to those ineligible for RCT participation) and about non-CV safety.

Enhancement of Neurocognitive Assessments Using Smartphone Capabilities: Systematic Review.

Background: Comprehensive exams such as the Dean-Woodcock Neuropsychological Assessment System, the Global Deterioration Scale, and the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination are the gold standard for doctors and clinicians in the preliminary assessment and monitoring of neurocognitive function in conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases and acquired brain injuries (ABIs). In recent years, there has been an increased focus on implementing these exams on mobile devices to benefit from their configurable built-in sensors, in addition to scoring, interpretation, and storage capabilities. As smartphones become more accepted in health care among both users and clinicians, the ability to use device information (eg, device position, screen interactions, and app usage) for subject monitoring also increases.

Describing the resource utilisation and costs associated withvertebral fractures: the Build Better Bones with Exercise (B3E) Pilot Trial.

Unlabelled: This analysis examined costs/resources of 141 women with vertebral fractures, randomised to a home exercise programme or control group. Total, mean costs and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) were calculated. Quality of life was collected.

An easy-to-perform, culture-free Campylobacter point-of-management assay for processing plant applications.

Aims: Current culture-based methods for detection and determination of Campylobacter levels on processed chickens takes at least 2 days. Here we sought to develop a new complete, low-cost and rapid (approximately 2·5 h) detection system requiring minimal operator input.

Methods And Results: We observed a strong correlation between culture-based cell counts and our ability to detect either Campylobacter jejuni or Campylobacter coli by loop-mediated isothermal amplification from the same samples.

Build better bones with exercise (B3E pilot trial): results of a feasibility study of a multicenter randomized controlled trial of 12 months of home exercise in older women with vertebral fracture.

Unlabelled: We pilot-tested a trial of home exercise on individuals with osteoporosis and spine fracture. Our target enrollment was met, though it took longer than expected. Participants stayed in the study and completed the exercise program with no safety concerns.

Typing DNA profiles from previously enhanced fingerprints using direct PCR.

Fingermarks are a source of human identification both through the ridge patterns and DNA profiling. Typing nuclear STR DNA markers from previously enhanced fingermarks provides an alternative method of utilising the limited fingermark deposit that can be left behind during a criminal act. Dusting with fingerprint powders is a standard method used in classical fingermark enhancement and can affect DNA data.

Ultrafast Recombination Dynamics in Dye-Sensitized SnO/TiO Core/Shell Films.

Interfacial dynamics are investigated in SnO/TiO core/shell films derivatized with a Ru(II)-polypyridyl chromophore ([Ru(bpy)(4,4'-(POH)bpy)], RuP) using transient absorption methods. Electron injection from the chromophore into the TiO shell occurs within a few picoseconds after photoexcitation. Loss of the oxidized dye through recombination occurs across time scales spanning 10 orders of magnitude.

Novel Anti-Campylobacter Compounds Identified Using High Throughput Screening of a Pre-selected Enriched Small Molecules Library.

Campylobacter is a leading cause of foodborne bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide and infections can be fatal. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter spp. necessitates the development of new antimicrobials.

Ultrafast, Light-Induced Electron Transfer in a Perylene Diimide Chromophore-Donor Assembly on TiO2.

Surface-bound, perylenediimide (PDI)-based molecular assemblies have been synthesized on nanocrystalline TiO2 by reaction of a dianhydride with a surface-bound aniline and succinimide bonding. In a second step, the Fe(II) polypyridyl complex [Fe(II)(tpy-PhNH2)2](2+) was added to the outside of the film, also by succinimide bonding. Ultrafast transient absorption measurements in 0.

Synthesis, characterization, and water oxidation by a molecular chromophore-catalyst assembly prepared by atomic layer deposition. The "mummy" strategy.

A new strategy for preparing spatially-controlled, multi-component films consisting of molecular light absorbing chromophores and water oxidation catalysts on high surface area, mesoporous metal oxide surfaces is described. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is used to embed a surface-bound chromophore in a thin layer of inert AlO, followed by catalyst binding to the new oxide surface. In a final step, catalyst surface-binding is stabilized by a subsequent ALD overlayer of AlO.