Drug or inhaler… Which is first? Rodriguez, Miguel Román
Revista portuguesa de medicina geral e familiar,
11/2023, Letnik:
39, Številka:
5
Journal Article
The semi-empirical, kernel-driven, linear RossThick-LiSparseReciprocal (RTLSR) Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) model is used to generate the routine MODIS BRDF/Albedo product ...due to its global applicability and the underlying physics. A challenge of this model in regard to surface reflectance anisotropy effects comes from its underestimation of the directional reflectance signatures near the Sun illumination direction; also known as the hotspot effect. In this study, a method has been developed for improving the ability of the RTLSR model to simulate the magnitude and width of the hotspot effect. The method corrects the volumetric scattering component of the RTLSR model using an exponential approximation of a physical hotspot kernel, which recreates the hotspot magnitude and width using two free parameters (C1 and C2, respectively). The approach allows one to reconstruct, with reasonable accuracy, the hotspot effect by adjusting or using the prior values of these two hotspot variables. Our results demonstrate that: (1) significant improvements in capturing hotspot effect can be made to this method by using the inverted hotspot parameters; (2) the reciprocal nature allow this method to be more adaptive for simulating the hotspot height and width with high accuracy, especially in cases where hotspot signatures are available; and (3) while the new approach is consistent with the heritage RTLSR model inversion used to estimate intrinsic narrowband and broadband albedos, it presents some differences for vegetation clumping index (CI) retrievals. With the hotspot-related model parameters determined a priori, this method offers improved performance for various ecological remote sensing applications; including the estimation of canopy structure parameters.
•We have developed a new method to refine the hotspot obtained from the MODIS BRDF retrieval.•The method uses an exponential function to correct the Ross kernel.•The method was evaluated using multi-resolution BRDF data sets.•We examined the sensitivity of the hotspot parameters in characterizing hotspot effect.•We examined this method in retrieving intrinsic albedo and clumping index values.
SARS-CoV-2 is a new coronavirus characterized by a high infection and transmission capacity. A significant number of patients develop inadequate immune responses that produce massive releases of ...cytokines that compromise their survival. Soluble factors are clinically and pathologically relevant in COVID-19 survival but remain only partially characterized. The objective of this work was to simultaneously study 62 circulating soluble factors, including innate and adaptive cytokines and their soluble receptors, chemokines and growth and wound-healing/repair factors, in severe COVID-19 patients who survived compared to those with fatal outcomes. Serum samples were obtained from 286 COVID-19 patients and 40 healthy controls. The 62 circulating soluble factors were quantified using a Luminex Milliplex assay. Results. The patients who survived had decreased levels of the following 30 soluble factors of the 62 studied compared to those with fatal outcomes, therefore, these decreases were observed for cytokines and receptors predominantly produced by the innate immune system—IL-1α, IL-1α, IL-18, IL-15, IL-12p40, IL-6, IL-27, IL-1Ra, IL-1RI, IL-1RII, TNFα, TGFα, IL-10, sRAGE, sTNF-RI and sTNF-RII—for the chemokines IL-8, IP-10, MCP-1, MCP-3, MIG and fractalkine; for the growth factors M-CSF and the soluble receptor sIL2Ra; for the cytokines involved in the adaptive immune system IFNγ, IL-17 and sIL-4R; and for the wound-repair factor FGF2. On the other hand, the patients who survived had elevated levels of the soluble factors TNFβ, sCD40L, MDC, RANTES, G-CSF, GM-CSF, EGF, PDGFAA and PDGFABBB compared to those who died. Conclusions. Increases in the circulating levels of the sCD40L cytokine; MDC and RANTES chemokines; the G-CSF and GM-CSF growth factors, EGF, PDGFAA and PDGFABBB; and tissue-repair factors are strongly associated with survival. By contrast, large increases in IL-15, IL-6, IL-18, IL-27 and IL-10; the sIL-1RI, sIL1RII and sTNF-RII receptors; the MCP3, IL-8, MIG and IP-10 chemokines; the M-CSF and sIL-2Ra growth factors; and the wound-healing factor FGF2 favor fatal outcomes of the disease.
The clumping index (CI) characterizes the grouping of foliage relative to a random spatial distribution of leaves and is an important structural parameter for plant canopies that can influence canopy ...radiation regimes. Consequently, the CI is very useful for ecological and meteorological models. One method used to retrieve the CIs of plant canopies is to construct a linear relationship between the CI and the normalized difference between hotspot and dark spot (NDHD) angular index. This method requires a particularly accurate reconstruction of hotspot signatures, which are difficult to measure. In this study, we propose a framework to retrieve CIs from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) parameters, which are generally based on linear CI-NDHD equations. The main algorithm is designed to retrieve CIs in the closed interval 0.33, 1.00. This range is derived from the CI-NDHD equations and is thus called as the physical range here, although a modified lower boundary can be implemented in the future if necessary. If CIs are outside of this range, then a backup algorithm is designed to reprocess these so-called outlier CIs. The hotspot-adjusted version of the RossThick-LiSparseReciprocal (RTLSR) model (i.e., the RTCLSR model) is employed to reconstruct the hotspot signatures for the MODIS BRDF parameters. This method simplifies the hotspot reconstruction by using two hotspot parameters that are not distinctly scale-dependent particularly in the context of an inhomogeneous coarse spatial resolution. To evaluate this algorithm framework, we collect dozens of global field-measured CIs and calculate their determination coefficient (R2), root mean square error (RMSE) and bias relative to MODIS CIs derived using both the main algorithm and the backup algorithm. Our results show that this framework can derive MODIS CIs with a high accuracy (i.e., R2 = 0.80 (0.72), RMSE = 0.07 (0.12), bias = −0.03 (−0.10)) using the main (backup) algorithms and that it shows promise for various ecological applications, especially in combination with the leaf area index (LAI).
•A method is proposed to map clumping indices (CIs) from MODIS BRDF parameters.•An adjusted model, RTCSLR, is used to adjust for underestimated hotspot signatures.•A main algorithm generates MODIS CIs in the closed interval 0.33, 1.0.•A backup algorithm is devised to process CIs outside of the aforementioned range.•Validation shows this method can produce MODIS CIs with a high accuracy.
A landslide is a soils movement that depending on its level can be a very risky event, causing from material losses to human lives in some occasions. It can occur naturally or by anthropogenic means, ...the main causes are usually high intensity rainfall, soils with poor geomechanical characteristics, considerable seismic movements, erosion, lack of vegetation cover, among others. Paccha is a parish where there are several active landslides that put its inhabitants and their material goods at risk. As a result, this research analyzes one of them with UTM17s, 728845,38 E 9679536,46 N coordinates, located in the El Salado sector, for its study it is intended to characterize it, measuring its displacement and velocity through a monitoring of 36 days in 3 data collection campaigns with GNSS equipment using the RTK method, in addition a seismic refraction test is used to measure the period of vibration of the soil at the site. The results obtained indicate that the soil in the sector is clay and silt of high plasticity, the slip is extremely slow, semi-deep, with lateral propagation and rotational geometry. The displacement between points is 4,14 cm while the velocity is 0,43 m/year, finally the vibration period corresponds to a value of 0,13s and the shear wave velocity Vs is 178,85, which is categorized as a type E soil.
Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has demonstrated clinical success in "inflamed" tumors with substantial T cell infiltrates, but tumors with an immune-desert tumor microenvironment (TME) fail to ...benefit. The tumor cell-intrinsic molecular mechanisms of the immune-desert phenotype remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrated that inactivation of the polycomb-repressive complex 2 (PRC2) core components embryonic ectoderm development (EED) or suppressor of zeste 12 homolog (SUZ12), a prevalent genetic event in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) and sporadically in other cancers, drove a context-dependent immune-desert TME. PRC2 inactivation reprogramed the chromatin landscape that led to a cell-autonomous shift from primed baseline signaling-dependent cellular responses (e.g., IFN-γ signaling) to PRC2-regulated developmental and cellular differentiation transcriptional programs. Further, PRC2 inactivation led to diminished tumor immune infiltrates through reduced chemokine production and impaired antigen presentation and T cell priming, resulting in primary resistance to ICB. Intratumoral delivery of inactivated modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) enhanced tumor immune infiltrates and sensitized PRC2-loss tumors to ICB. Our results identify molecular mechanisms of PRC2 inactivation-mediated, context-dependent epigenetic reprogramming that underline the immune-desert phenotype in cancer. Our studies also point to intratumoral delivery of immunogenic viruses as an initial therapeutic strategy to modulate the immune-desert TME and capitalize on the clinical benefit of ICB.
MODIS BRDF/NBAR/Albedo products (MCD43) have been widely used for a variety of land surface studies since 2000 (e.g., for climate and biosphere modeling, radiative forcing, phenology, and ...classification schemes). In the past, limitations in computing and archive capacity had restricted the MCD43 retrievals to only once every eight days. The latest reprocessing of the entire archive of Terra and Aqua MODIS BRDF/NBAR/Albedo products (Collection V006) provide retrievals each day and therefore represent a major improvement for phenological and surface monitoring efforts. Compared to the previous retrieval which occurred every 8-days based on a 16-day retrieval period for Collection V005 MODIS BRDF/NBAR/Albedo, this study demonstrates that the Collection V006 MODIS BRDF/NBAR/Albedo product retrieved every day captures significantly more seasonal vegetation dynamics and rapid land surface changes. The Collection V006 product still utilizes the 16-days of directional reflectances surrounding the day of interest (9th day) to retrieve the model of the surface anisotropy but assigns the highest temporal weight to the day of interest (the center date of the retrieval period). Furthermore, the Collection V006 retrievals utilize the day of interest snow/snow-free status to capture snow albedo (an improvement over the previous Collection V005 strategy which based the retrieval on the predominant snow/snow-free status of the majority of the observations over the 16-day retrieval period). All valid clear sky observations from Terra and Aqua are now used for each retrieval, which improves the inversion quality. This is especially true at high latitudes, where up to nine observations from each sensor can be observed per day. Thus, although the high quality full inversion Collection V006 albedo retrieval values are consistent with the Collection V005 results, the overall number of high quality results retrieved has increased. Furthermore, the accuracy of the poorer quality magnitude inversions (which rely on a back-up algorithm) has improved due to utilization of the latest high quality full inversion retrievals as pixel-specific a priori knowledge. The ability of the latest Collection V006 MODIS BRDF/NBAR/Albedo products to capture land surface dynamics is evaluated by using a globally-distributed record of spatially representative tower measurements. The RMSE of broadband shortwave blue-sky albedo at these sites is <0.0318 and the bias is within ±0.0076 for all quality results.
•The daily V006 MCD43 products capture rapid land surface changes.•The inversion quality is improved by using all valid clear sky observations.•Pixel-specific a priori knowledge is utilized to improve magnitude inversion.•Each snow covered day can be captured by the daily V006 MCD43 products.•V006 MCD43 products update the QA fields and expand the measures of uncertainty.
Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) has oncogenic and tumor-suppressive roles in cancer. There is clinical success of targeting this complex in PRC2-dependent cancers, but an unmet therapeutic need ...exists in PRC2-loss cancer. PRC2-inactivating mutations are a hallmark feature of high-grade malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST), an aggressive sarcoma with poor prognosis and no effective targeted therapy. Through RNAi screening in MPNST, we found that PRC2 inactivation increases sensitivity to genetic or small-molecule inhibition of DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), which results in enhanced cytotoxicity and antitumor response. Mechanistically, PRC2 inactivation amplifies DNMT inhibitor-mediated expression of retrotransposons, subsequent viral mimicry response, and robust cell death in part through a protein kinase R (PKR)-dependent double-stranded RNA sensor. Collectively, our observations posit DNA methylation as a safeguard against antitumorigenic cell-fate decisions in PRC2-loss cancer to promote cancer pathogenesis, which can be therapeutically exploited by DNMT1-targeted therapy.
PRC2 inactivation drives oncogenesis in various cancers, but therapeutically targeting PRC2 loss has remained challenging. Here we show that PRC2-inactivating mutations set up a tumor context-specific liability for therapeutic intervention via DNMT1 inhibitors, which leads to innate immune signaling mediated by sensing of derepressed retrotransposons and accompanied by enhanced cytotoxicity. See related commentary by Guil and Esteller, p. 2020. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 2007.
A real-time understanding of the distribution and duration of power outages after a major disaster is a precursor to minimizing their harmful consequences. Here, we develop an approach for using ...daily satellite nighttime lights data to create spatially disaggregated power outage estimates, tracking electricity restoration efforts after disasters strike. In contrast to existing utility data, these estimates are independent, open, and publicly-available, consistently measured across regions that may be serviced by several different power companies, and inclusive of distributed power supply (off-grid systems). We apply the methodology in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, which caused the longest blackout in US history. Within all of the island's settlements, we track outages and recovery times, and link these measures to census-based demographic characteristics of residents. Our results show an 80% decrease in lights, in total, immediately after Hurricane Maria. During the recovery, a disproportionate share of long-duration power failures (> 120 days) occurred in rural municipalities (41% of rural municipalities vs. 29% of urban municipalities), and in the northern and eastern districts. Unexpectedly, we also identify large disparities in electricity recovery between neighborhoods within the same urban area, based primarily on the density of housing. For many urban areas, poor residents, the most vulnerable to increased mortality and morbidity risks from power losses, shouldered the longest outages because they lived in less dense, detached housing where electricity restoration lagged. The approach developed in this study demonstrates the potential of satellite-based estimates of power recovery to improve the real-time monitoring of disaster impacts, globally, at a spatial resolution that is actionable for the disaster response community.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
PDF
