Håkon Næss Sandum, Hans Ole Ørka, Oliver Tomic
et al.
Accurate forest stand delineation is essential for forest inventory and management but remains a largely manual and subjective process. A recent study has shown that deep learning can produce stand delineations comparable to expert interpreters when combining aerial imagery and airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. However, temporal misalignment between data sources limits operational scalability. Canopy height models (CHMs) derived from digital photogrammetry (DAP) offer better temporal alignment but may smoothen canopy surface and canopy gaps, raising the question of whether they can reliably replace ALS-derived CHMs. Similarly, the inclusion of a digital terrain model (DTM) has been suggested to improve delineation performance, but has remained untested in published literature. Using expert-delineated forest stands as reference data, we assessed a U-Net-based semantic segmentation framework with municipality-level cross-validation across six municipalities in southeastern Norway. We compared multispectral aerial imagery combined with (i) an ALS-derived CHM, (ii) a DAP-derived CHM, and (iii) a DAP-derived CHM in combination with a DTM. Results showed comparable performance across all data combinations, reaching overall accuracy values between 0.90-0.91. Agreement between model predictions was substantially larger than agreement with the reference data, highlighting both model consistency and the inherent subjectivity of stand delineation. The similar performance of DAP-CHMs, despite the reduced structural detail, and the lack of improvements of the DTM indicate that the framework is resilient to variations in input data. These findings indicate that large datasets for deep learning-based stand delineations can be assembled using projects including temporally aligned ALS data and DAP point clouds.
Eva B. Aamodt, Martin Røvang, Mona K. Beyer
et al.
BackgroundMeasures of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) represent a crucial part of post-stroke outcome prediction. Automatic WMH segmentation has proven particularly challenging in stroke cases. Using an improved method for WMH segmentation that incorporates stroke lesions, we set out to explore factors associated with higher WMH burden, as well as the association between WMH burden and post-stroke dependency across two different countries that may demonstrate significant variation in radiological presentation.MethodsA total of 384 acute ischemic stroke (AIS) survivors from the Norwegian Cognitive Impairment After Stroke (Nor-COAST; NO) study and the Houston Methodist Registry of Neurological Endpoint Assessments among Patients with Ischemic and Hemorrhagic Stroke (REINAH; US) database were analyzed. MRI and clinical data were collected upon acute care hospital admission. WMHs were measured automatically using the nnU-Net methodology, taking into account the acute stroke lesion.ResultsNo significant difference in WMH percentage was found between sites. Factors associated with higher WMH burden included only age in NO, while in US, very high age (≥ 85), smoking, and being underweight were key factors. The two sites showed significant differences in demographics and clinical characteristics: the US cohort exhibited greater racial heterogeneity, higher body mass index (BMI) with more extremely obese patients, higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores, and more thrombectomies, whereas the NO cohort exhibited more tobacco use, hypercholesterolemia, and longer stay at the hospital. Post-stroke dependency was initially associated with higher WMH percentage overall but only remained significant after adjusment in Norwegians aged ≥85, while in the US, dependency was driven by stroke severity and treatment after adjustment.ConclusionCohorts from the US and Norway exhibit no significant difference in WMH burden, but differ in the factors associated with WMHs.
Augmenting test suites with test cases that reflect the actual usage of the software system is extremely important to sustain the quality of long lasting software systems. In this paper, we propose E-Test, an approach that incrementally augments a test suite with test cases that exercise behaviors that emerge in production and that are not been tested yet. E-Test leverages Large Language Models to identify already-tested, not-yet-tested, and error-prone unit execution scenarios, and augment the test suite accordingly. Our experimental evaluation shows that E-Test outperforms the main state-of-the-art approaches to identify inadequately tested behaviors and optimize test suites.
Oddvar Uleberg, Sarah King, Lars Petter Bjørnsen
et al.
Introduction Delirium is commonly observed in older patients who are admitted to the emergency department (ED). Previous systematic reviews have identified poor outcomes associated with delirium in surgical, intensive care and other hospital settings, yet none have specifically considered the ED. This systematic review aims to examine associations between older patients who present or develop delirium in the ED and adverse outcomes within the hospital and after discharge.Methods and analysis Searches will be conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and the Cochrane Library. There will be no date or language restrictions. Key terms will include concepts related to delirium, the ED and older adults. Observational studies or non-intervention clinical studies will be included that compare outcomes in older patients (ie, ≥65 years) with and without delirium. Outcomes of interest will include length of hospital stay, non-home discharge (eg, nursing home/residential aged care facility), cognitive impairment, decreased physical function, mortality, readmission to hospital and quality of life measures. Two reviewers will independently screen the studies. Data extraction and quality assessment will be extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second reviewer, with any disagreements resolved by discussion or by a third reviewer. Where appropriate, data will be combined in a meta-analysis and a GRADE assessment will be made for each outcome. All methods will be guided by the Cochrane Handbook and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis statement as well as the recommendations set out by the Meta-analysis Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology group.Ethics and dissemination As this systematic review will use published data, ethical approval is not required. The results will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations.PROSPERO registration number CRD42024594975.
I løpet av 1960-tallet skjedde det store moderniseringer i sardinsektoren, som var en del av den norske hermetikkindustrien. I årene etter andre verdenskrig ble det satt i gang omlegginger og forskningsprosjekter som endret industrien. Hermetikkindustriens Teknologforening ble en møteplass for teknisk personell, Hermetikk-og konservindustriens fagskole utdannet fabrikkpersonell, og maskinavdelingen på Hermetikklaboratoriet utviklet maskiner og laget effektiviseringsplaner for sardinfabrikkene. Hermetikklaboratoriet forsket seg frem til en god måte å fryse industriens viktigste råstoff, brisling og småsild, på uten tap av kvalitet. Senere bisto maskinavdelingen i arbeidet med å utruste fryseskip som kunne hente og fryse fisk direkte på fiskefeltet. I tillegg til alle de tekniske fremskrittene ble industriens rammevilkår endret ved nedleggelsen av sentralsystemet. Dette førte til at sardinindustrien kunne utvide produksjonskapasiteten på de enkelte fabrikker og eksportere uten hindringer. Disse faktorene bidro til at 1960- tallet ble tiåret da sardinindustrien kunne legge ned fabrikker og samtidig opprettholde en høy produksjonskapasitet.
Jan Weber, Gabriela Iwama, Anne-Kristin Solbakk
et al.
The human prefrontal cortex (PFC) constitutes the structural basis underlying flexible cognitive control, where mixed-selective neural populations encode multiple task features to guide subsequent behavior. The mechanisms by which the brain simultaneously encodes multiple task–relevant variables while minimizing interference from task-irrelevant features remain unknown. Leveraging intracranial recordings from the human PFC, we first demonstrate that competition between coexisting representations of past and present task variables incurs a behavioral switch cost. Our results reveal that this interference between past and present states in the PFC is resolved through coding partitioning into distinct low-dimensional neural states; thereby strongly attenuating behavioral switch costs. In sum, these findings uncover a fundamental coding mechanism that constitutes a central building block of flexible cognitive control.
Peter Nicolai Aashamar, Kirsti Klette, Anders Stig Christensen
Purpose: The study aimed at investigating the prevalence and characteristics of classroom practices geared at promoting higher-order social studies thinking, and the potential dilemma for teachers between focusing on explaining knowledge to and intellectually challenging students.
Design/methodology/approach: A comparative design using data from naturalistic classroom observations of 80 social studies lessons in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. We deployed the PLATO observation system to systematically measure intellectual challenge and the conceptual complexity of teacher explanations across the three countries.
Findings: We found evidence that many teachers promoted higher-order thinking to varying degrees within and across the three countries. Furthermore, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish teachers seemed to focus on different teaching practices related to higher-order thinking.
Practical implications: These findings provide important empirical knowledge about naturally occurring classroom practices in the Nordic context that may be relevant for teachers to reflect on higher-order thinking in social studies.
Special aspects of education, Social sciences (General)
Julius Juodakis, Karin Ytterberg, Christopher Flatley
et al.
Abstract Preterm birth is a major burden to neonatal health worldwide, determined in part by genetics. Recently, studies discovered several genes associated with this trait or its continuous equivalent—gestational duration. However, their effect timing, and thus clinical importance, is still unclear. Here, we use genotyping data of 31 000 births from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child cohort (MoBa) to investigate different models of the genetic pregnancy ‘clock’. We conduct genome-wide association studies using gestational duration or preterm birth, replicating known maternal associations and finding one new fetal variant. We illustrate how the interpretation of these results is complicated by the loss of power when dichotomizing. Using flexible survival models, we resolve this complexity and find that many of the known loci have time-varying effects, often stronger early in pregnancy. The overall polygenic control of birth timing appears to be shared in the term and preterm, but not very preterm, periods and exploratory results suggest involvement of the major histocompatibility complex genes in the latter. These findings show that the known gestational duration loci are clinically relevant and should help design further experimental studies.
Claudia Barth, Stener Nerland, Kjetil N Jørgensen
et al.
Abstract Background and Hypothesis The hippocampus is a heterogenous brain structure that differs between the sexes and has been implicated in the pathophysiology of psychiatric illnesses. Here, we explored sex and diagnostic group differences in hippocampal subfield volumes, in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SZ), bipolar disorders (BD), and healthy controls (CTL). Study Design One thousand and five hundred and twenty-one participants underwent T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (SZ, n = 452, mean age 30.7 ± 9.2 [SD] years, males 59.1%; BD, n = 316, 33.7 ± 11.4, 41.5%; CTL, n = 753, 34.1 ± 9.1, 55.6%). Total hippocampal, subfield, and intracranial volumes were estimated with Freesurfer (v6.0.0). Analysis of covariance and multiple regression models were fitted to examine sex-by-diagnostic (sub)group interactions in volume. In SZ and BD, separately, associations between volumes and clinical as well as cognitive measures were examined between the sexes using regression models. Study Results Significant sex-by-group interactions were found for the total hippocampus, dentate gyrus, molecular layer, presubiculum, fimbria, hippocampal-amygdaloid transition area, and CA4, indicating a larger volumetric deficit in male patients relative to female patients when compared with same-sex CTL. Subgroup analyses revealed that this interaction was driven by males with schizophrenia. Effect sizes were overall small (partial η < 0.02). We found no significant sex differences in the associations between hippocampal volumes and clinical or cognitive measures in SZ and BD. Conclusions Using a well-powered sample, our findings indicate that the pattern of morphological sex differences in hippocampal subfields is altered in individuals with schizophrenia relative to CTL, due to higher volumetric deficits in males.
We present a $p$-adic algorithm to recover the lexicographic Gröbner basis $\mathcal G$ of an ideal in $\mathbb Q[x,y]$ with a generating set in $\mathbb Z[x,y]$, with a complexity that is less than cubic in terms of the dimension of $\mathbb Q[x,y]/\langle \mathcal G \rangle$ and softly linear in the height of its coefficients. We observe that previous results of Lazard's that use Hermite normal forms to compute Gröbner bases for ideals with two generators can be generalized to a set of $t\in \mathbb N^+$ generators. We use this result to obtain a bound on the height of the coefficients of $\mathcal G$, and to control the probability of choosing a \textit{good} prime $p$ to build the $p$-adic expansion of $\mathcal G$.
Poliana Bellei, Isabel Torres, Runar Solstad
et al.
The oyster shell is a residue rich in calcium carbonate, which can be reused as a raw material for creating building materials. For this reason, many researchers focused on the incorporation of oyster shell in the composition of composites, as it is a means of contributing to the economic sustainability by reducing the presence of pollution caused by aquaculture waste in the environment, thus increasing the value chain of the construction sector and reducing its carbon footprint. This paper intends to systematize the scientific production related to oyster shell-based composites in construction, carrying out a search using the Scopus tool and a systematic review based on the PRISMA statement. The results show that research on the incorporation of oyster shell into cementitious mortar mixtures, with a focus on its use in concrete, dominates existing scientific research. There is a lack of studies on the incorporation of the oyster shell that address its application as an aggregate or binder in the composition of coating and laying mortars. Most existing research is from Asia, and there is a lack of research in some parts of Europe. In the Americas, Africa and Oceania, no existing studies were found. Despite the growing understanding of the importance of sustainability and economic issues related to products used in the blue circular economy sector, there are still few studies that consider the incorporation of waste or by-products of aquaculture. Future investigations that cover these practical and contextual gaps can contribute to the better use of oyster shell waste and its insertion in the blue circular economy.
Marouen Ben Guebila, Tian Wang, Camila M. Lopes-Ramos
et al.
Abstract Inference and analysis of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) require software that integrates multi-omic data from various sources. The Network Zoo (netZoo; netzoo.github.io) is a collection of open-source methods to infer GRNs, conduct differential network analyses, estimate community structure, and explore the transitions between biological states. The netZoo builds on our ongoing development of network methods, harmonizing the implementations in various computing languages and between methods to allow better integration of these tools into analytical pipelines. We demonstrate the utility using multi-omic data from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia. We will continue to expand the netZoo to incorporate additional methods.
Koduru Hajarathaiah, Murali Krishna Enduri, Sateeshkrishna Dhuli
et al.
Identifying vital nodes is important in disease research, spreading rumors, viral marketing, and drug development. The vital nodes in any network are used to spread information as widely as possible. Centrality measures such as Degree centrality (D), Betweenness centrality (B), Closeness centrality (C), Katz (K), Cluster coefficient (CC), PR (PageRank), LGC (Local and Global Centrality), ISC (Isolating Centrality) centrality measures can be used to effectively quantify vital nodes. The majority of these centrality measures are defined in the literature and are based on a network’s local and/or global structure. However, these measures are time-consuming and inefficient for large-scale networks. Also, these measures cannot study the effect of removal of vital nodes in resource-constrained networks. To address these concerns, we propose the six new centrality measures namely GRACC, LRACC, GRAD, LRAD, GRAK, and LRAK. We develop these measures based on the relative change of the clustering coefficient, degree, and Katz centralities after the removal of a vertex. Next, we compare the proposed centrality measures with D, B, C, CC, K, PR, LGC, and ISC to demonstrate their efficiency and time complexity. We utilize the SIR (Susceptible-Infected-Recovered) and IC (Independent Cascade) models to study the maximum information spread of proposed measures over conventional ones. We perform extensive simulations on large-scale real-world data sets and prove that local centrality measures perform better in some networks than global measures in terms of time complexity and information spread. Further, we also observe the number of cliques drastically improves the efficiency of global centrality measures.
Bakom och bortom järnridån viser variasjonsbredden i hvordan makthaverne og intelligentsiaen forholdt seg til hverandre i sovjetrepublikkene Estland, Latvia, Litauen og Ukraina. Dette benyttes til å forklare forskjeller i utviklingen i de fire landene i de formative årene på 1990-tallet.
This study investigates how Education Outside the Classroom (EOtC) was used to foster the inclusion of students with immigrant backgrounds into the class. An ethnographic mixed-methods design was used, and two exemplary stories display the barriers and facilitators of inclusion in a rural school in Germany. The findings show that a lack of language proficiency and academic and social overburdening are among the main barriers to inclusion. An EOtC approach with a strong focus on place and culture responsivity, on the other hand, offers possibilities for the participation of all students and offers a promising way to more inclusive schools.
Sharline Riiser, Valborg Baste, Inger Haukenes
et al.
Abstract Background There is growing evidence of variation in treatment for patients with depression, not only across patient characteristics, but also with respect to the organizational and structural framework of general practitioners’ (GPs') practice. However, the reasons for these variations are sparsely examined. This study aimed to investigate associations of practice characteristics with provision of depression care in general practices in Norway. Methods A nationwide cohort study of residents aged ≥ 18 years with a new depression episode in general practice during 2009–2015, based on linked registry data. Exposures were characteristics of GP practice: geographical location, practice list size, and duration of GP-patient relationship. Outcomes were talking therapy, antidepressant medication and sick listing provided by GP during 12 months from date of diagnosis. Associations between exposure and outcome were estimated using generalized linear models, adjusted for patients’ age, gender, education and immigrant status, and characteristics of GP practice. Results The study population comprised 285 113 patients, mean age 43.5 years, 61.6% women. They were registered with 5 574 GPs. Of the patients, 52.5% received talking therapy, 34.1% antidepressant drugs and 54.1% were sick listed, while 17.3% received none of the above treatments. Patients in rural practices were less likely to receive talking therapy (adjusted relative risk (adj RR) = 0.68; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.64–0.73) and more likely to receive antidepressants (adj RR = 1.09; 95% CI = 1.04–1.14) compared to those in urban practices. Patients on short practice lists were more likely to receive medication (adj RR = 1.08; 95% CI = 1.05–1.12) than those on long practice lists. Patients with short GP-patient relationship were more likely to receive talking therapy (adj RR = 1.20; 95% CI = 1.17–1.23) and medication (adj RR = 1.08; 95% CI = 1.04–1.12), and less likely to be sick-listed (RR = 0.88; 95% CI = 0.87–0.89), than patients with long GP-patient relationship. Conclusions Provision of GP depression care varied with practice characteristics. Talking therapy was less commonly provided in rural practices and among those with long-lasting GP-patient relationship. These differences may indicate some variation, and therefore, its reasons and clinical consequences need further investigation.
Dina Benedicte Stensen, Rafael Adolfo Nozal Cañadas, Lars Småbrekke
et al.
Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage increases risk of infection and has been associated with lifestyle behavior and biological host characteristics. We used social network analysis to evaluate whether contacts have the same S. aureus genotype, or whether contagiousness is an indirect effect of contacts sharing the same lifestyle or characteristics. The Fit Futures 1 study collected data on social contact among 1038 first level students in the same high school district in Norway. S. aureus persistent carriage was determined from two nasal swab cultures and genotype from spa-typing of a positive throat swab culture. Bootstrap, t-tests, logistic regression, and autocorrelation were used to evaluate social network influence on host risk factors and S. aureus carriage. Both persistent carriage and spa-type were transmitted in the social network (p<0.001). The probability of carriage increased by 3.7% and 5.0% for each additional S. aureus positive friend, in univariable regression and multivariable autocorrelation analysis respectively. Male sex was associated with a 15% lower risk of transmission compared to women, although the prevalence of carriage was higher for men (36% versus 24%). Medium physical activity, medium and high alcohol-use, and normal-weight students had higher number of contacts, and increased risk of transmission (p<0.002). We demonstrate direct social transmission of S. aureus in a general youth population. Lifestyle factors are associated with risk of transmission suggesting indirect social group effects from having more similar environmental exposures. The predominance in carriage is determined by sex-specific predisposing host characteristics as social transmission is less frequent than in females. Better understanding of how social interactions influence S. aureus carriage dynamics in the population is important for developing new preventive measures.
Felipe Attanasio, Benjamin Jäger, Felix P. G. Ziegler
We use complex Langevin simulations to study the QCD phase diagram with two light quark flavours. In this study, we use Wilson fermions with an intermediate pion mass of $\sim480\,$MeV. By studying thermodynamic quantities, in particular at lower temperatures, we are able to describe the equation of state.