We assess evidence relevant to Earth's equilibrium climate sensitivity per doubling of atmospheric CO2, characterized by an effective sensitivity S . This evidence includes feedback process ...understanding, the historical climate record, and the paleoclimate record. An S value lower than 2 K is difficult to reconcile with any of the three lines of evidence. The amount of cooling during the Last Glacial Maximum provides strong evidence against values of S greater than 4.5 K. Other lines of evidence in combination also show that this is relatively unlikely. We use a Bayesian approach to produce a probability density (PDF) for S given all the evidence, including tests of robustness to difficult‐to‐quantify uncertainties and different priors. The 66% range is 2.6‐3.9 K for our Baseline calculation, and remains within 2.3‐4.5 K under the robustness tests; corresponding 5‐95% ranges are 2.3‐4.7 K, bounded by 2.0‐5.7 K (although such high‐confidence ranges should be regarded more cautiously). This indicates a stronger constraint on S than reported in past assessments, by lifting the low end of the range. This narrowing occurs because the three lines of evidence agree and are judged to be largely independent, and because of greater confidence in understanding feedback processes and in combining evidence. We identify promising avenues for further narrowing the range in S , in particular using comprehensive models and process understanding to address limitations in the traditional forcing‐feedback paradigm for interpreting past changes.
Summary Although outpatient specialty palliative-care clinics improve outcomes, there is no consensus on who should be referred or the optimal timing for referral. In response to this issue, we did a ...Delphi study to develop consensus on a list of criteria for referral of patients with advanced cancer at secondary or tertiary care hospitals to outpatient palliative care. 60 international experts (26 from North America, 19 from Asia and Australia, and 11 from Europe) on palliative cancer care rated 39 needs-based criteria and 22 time-based criteria in three iterative rounds. Nearly all experts responded in each round. Consensus was defined by an a-priori agreement of 70% or more. Panellists reached consensus on 11 major criteria for referral: severe physical symptoms, severe emotional symptoms, request for hastened death, spiritual or existential crisis, assistance with decision making or care planning, patient request for referral, delirium, spinal cord compression, brain or leptomeningeal metastases, within 3 months of advanced cancer diagnosis for patients with median survival of 1 year or less, and progressive disease despite second-line therapy. Consensus was also reached on 36 minor criteria for specialist palliative-care referral. These criteria, if validated, could provide guidance for identification of patients suitable for outpatient specialty palliative care.
With the launch of the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) in 2006, the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) took the initiative to implement the first global-scale systematic acquisition strategy for ...satellite sensors at fine and medium (2.5–20m) spatial resolution. Comprising all three sensors on ALOS (PALSAR, PRISM, AVNIR-2), the plan was designed to serve all ALOS user categories and aimed at producing spatially and temporally consistent baseline coverages over the planet on a repetitive basis, to accommodate systematic global-scale, fine-resolution, monitoring of the environment. Unlike the common background missions defined for most fine-resolution Earth Observation satellites, the observation strategy was implemented as a top-level foreground mission with a priority second only to that of special observation requests and emergency observations and sensor calibration.
While the ALOS mission regrettably ended in April 2011, the global acquisition strategy nevertheless produced a comprehensive and homogeneous global archive in which consistent time-series of data are available for any arbitrary land area on Earth (excluding Antarctica >77.5° South latitude, which could not be reached by the sensors). Clouds and haze inevitably constituted limitations for the optical sensors, while for the PALSAR instrument, two cloud-free and near-gap free (~95%) global coverages were achieved annually during the 4.5years in operations. Previously, such uniform data archives existed only for coarse-resolution sensors such as AVHRR, MERIS and MODIS. The ALOS BOS supported a variety applications from local to global scales, ranging from structural deformation, monitoring of wetlands regional inundation patterns and mapping of forest extent and changes over nations and continents at spatial resolutions as fine as 10m.
The Advanced Land Observing Satellite 2 (ALOS-2) was launched on May 24, 2014. Equipped with an enhanced L-band SAR sensor (PALSAR-2), ALOS-2 resumes the global wall-to-wall acquisitions to assure continuity and consistency with JAXA’s global mission objectives and unique L-band SAR archive created by ALOS PALSAR.
•First global acquisition strategy implemented for a mid-resolution SAR mission•Continental wall-to-wall observation planning prevents fragmented data archives•75-80% average acquisition success rate achieved for the ALOS mission•Follow-on mission (ALOS-2) will also feature systematic acquisition strategy•Global strategic planning now accepted approach for many near-future missions
Abstract Context The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) is a widely used, self-report symptom intensity tool for assessing nine common symptoms in palliative care, with ratings ranging from 0 ...(none, best) to 10 (worst). Based on a “think-aloud” study of 20 advanced cancer patients, the ESAS was revised (ESAS-r). Objectives To compare the consistency of patients’ symptom ratings and obtain patient perspectives regarding ease of understanding and completion between the ESAS and ESAS-r. Methods Cognitively intact patients ( n = 160) were recruited from eight palliative care sites in Canada and Switzerland, using cross-sectional sampling (20 per site). Consenting patients completed the ESAS, ESAS-r, and a structured interview. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated to assess rating consistency. Results In total, 1046 patients were screened. One hundred sixty were enrolled and evaluable (female 51%, median age 61 range 34–92, lung cancer 26%, gastrointestinal cancer 22%). Mean ESAS scores ranged from 1.2 (nausea, standard deviation SD 2.1) to 4.3 (appetite, SD 3.3). ICCs ranged from 0.65 to 0.83, with lowest scores (<0.8) for drowsiness, appetite, and well-being. Although most patients rated both versions as very easy or easy to understand and complete, the ESAS-r was significantly easier to understand than the ESAS ( P = 0.008). Significantly, more patients preferred the ESAS-r (39%) than the ESAS (14%, P < 0.001) because of its definitions, clarity, and format. Conclusion The ESAS-r retains core elements of the ESAS, with improved interpretation and clarity of symptom intensity assessment. It represents the next generation of ESAS development, with further validation recommended for drowsiness, appetite, and well-being.
Systems-level identification and analysis of cellular circuits in the brain will require the development of whole-brain imaging with single-cell resolution. To this end, we performed comprehensive ...chemical screening to develop a whole-brain clearing and imaging method, termed CUBIC (clear, unobstructed brain imaging cocktails and computational analysis). CUBIC is a simple and efficient method involving the immersion of brain samples in chemical mixtures containing aminoalcohols, which enables rapid whole-brain imaging with single-photon excitation microscopy. CUBIC is applicable to multicolor imaging of fluorescent proteins or immunostained samples in adult brains and is scalable from a primate brain to subcellular structures. We also developed a whole-brain cell-nuclear counterstaining protocol and a computational image analysis pipeline that, together with CUBIC reagents, enable the visualization and quantification of neural activities induced by environmental stimulation. CUBIC enables time-course expression profiling of whole adult brains with single-cell resolution.
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•Simple and efficient brain-clearing reagents and image informatics were developed•CUBIC is applicable to imaging of fluorescent proteins in adult brains and 3D-IHC•The CUBIC method is scalable from a primate brain to subcellular structures•CUBIC enables whole-brain imaging with single-cell resolution
CUBIC enables rapid whole-brain imaging with single-photon excitation microscopy and scaling from subcellular structures to a primate brain.
Modern power systems require increased intelligence and flexibility in the control and optimization to ensure the capability of maintaining a generation-load balance, following serious disturbances. ...This issue is becoming more significant today due to the increasing number of microgrids (MGs). The MGs mostly use renewable energies in electrical power production that are varying naturally. These changes and usual uncertainties in power systems cause the classic controllers to be unable to provide a proper performance over a wide range of operating conditions. In response to this challenge, the present paper addresses a new online intelligent approach by using a combination of the fuzzy logic and the particle swarm optimization (PSO) techniques for optimal tuning of the most popular existing proportional-integral (PI) based frequency controllers in the ac MG systems. The control design methodology is examined on an ac MG case study. The performance of the proposed intelligent control synthesis is compared with the pure fuzzy PI and the Ziegler-Nichols PI control design methods.
Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) reprogramming allows to turn a differentiated somatic cell into a pluripotent cell. This process is accompanied by many changes in fundamental cell properties, ...such as energy production, cell-to-cell interactions, cytoskeletal organization, and others. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) can be used as a quantitative method of gene expression analysis to investigate iPS reprogramming but it requires a validation of reference genes for the accurate assessment of target genes' expression. Currently, studies evaluating the performance of reference genes during iPS reprogramming are lacking. In this study we analysed the stability of 12 housekeeping genes during 20 days of iPS reprogramming of murine cells based on statistical analyses of RT-qPCR data using five different statistical algorithms. This study reports strong variations in housekeeping gene stability during the reprogramming process. Most stable genes were Atp5f1, Pgk1 and Gapdh, while the least stable genes were Rps18, Hprt, Tbp and Actb. The results were validated by a proof-of-point qPCR experiment with pluripotent markers Nanog, Rex1 and Oct4 normalized to the best and the worst reference gene identified by the analyses. Overall, this study and its implications are particularly relevant to investigations on the cell-state and pluripotency in iPS reprogramming.
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