The use of Landsat data to answer ecological questions is greatly increased by the effective removal of cloud and cloud shadow from satellite images. We develop a novel algorithm to identify and ...classify clouds and cloud shadow, SPARCS: Spatial Procedures for Automated Removal of Cloud and Shadow. The method uses a neural network approach to determine cloud, cloud shadow, water, snow/ice and clear sky classification memberships of each pixel in a Landsat scene. It then applies a series of spatial procedures to resolve pixels with ambiguous membership by using information, such as the membership values of neighboring pixels and an estimate of cloud shadow locations from cloud and solar geometry. In a comparison with FMask, a high-quality cloud and cloud shadow classification algorithm currently available, SPARCS performs favorably, with substantially lower omission errors for cloud shadow (8.0% and 3.2%), only slightly higher omission errors for clouds (0.9% and 1.3%, respectively) and fewer errors of commission (2.6% and 0.3%). Additionally, SPARCS provides a measure of uncertainty in its classification that can be exploited by other algorithms that require clear sky pixels. To illustrate this, we present an application that constructs obstruction-free composites of images acquired on different dates in support of a method for vegetation change detection.
The global spread of COVID-19 is placing unprecedented demands on healthcare services. In this time of crisis, innovative and adaptive methods of practising will be required across all health ...professions. In order to maximise the use of current available resources, it is vital that existing services are comprehensively reviewed and full use is made of any unrealised potential among healthcare providers. Community pharmacy is one of a number of health professions that has a key role to play in responding to the current pandemic. As the scope of community pharmacy practice varies considerably across countries, it is important to examine ways in which the profession can assist with the public health response to COVID-19 and maintaining the continuity of healthcare services. This article seeks to highlight roles and activities that community pharmacists can undertake to help in relieving pressure on other areas of the health service, such as general practice. This information could help to inform future decisions about the restructuring of existing health services by governments, public health bodies and policy makers in response to public health crises such as COVID-19.
The majority of the world's countries have implemented policies designed to advance the political representation of women and/or minority groups. Yet we do not yet understand how these disparate ...policies affect the election of minority women. In this article, I draw on theories of intersectionality to conduct the first worldwide analysis of the effects of gender and minority quotas on minority women's representation in national legislatures. Using hierarchical linear modeling, I analyze how quotas influence the election of women from more than 300 racial, ethnic, and religious groups across 81 countries. I find that policies designed to promote the political representation of women and minority groups interact to produce diverse but predictable outcomes for minority women. Although quotas are ostensibly designed to promote diversity and inclusiveness, the quota policies in effect today rarely challenge majority men's dominance of national legislatures.
Objective
The mainstream media tend to rely on news content that will increase risk perceptions of pandemic outbreaks to stimulate public response and persuade people to comply with preventive ...behaviours. The objective of this study was to examine associations between exposure to coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) news, risk perceptions, and depressive symptoms.
Methods
Cross‐sectional data were collected from 501 participants who were ≥18 years. Exposure to COVID‐19 news was assessed as our exposure variable. We screened for depression (outcome variable) with the Patient Health Questionnaire and examined the roles of risk perceptions. Multiple linear regressions and mediation analysis with 1000 bootstrap resamples were conducted.
Results
Participants were 55.29% female, 67.86% White with mean age 32.44 ± 11.94 years. After controlling for sociodemographic and socio‐economic factors, news exposure was positively associated with depressive symptoms β = .11; 95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 0.02–0.20. Mediation analysis showed that perceived vulnerability to COVID‐19 mediated 34.4% of this relationship (β = .04; 95%CI = 0.01–0.06).
Conclusion
Perceived vulnerability to COVID‐19 can serve as a pathway through which exposure to COVID‐19 news on mainstream media may be associated with depressive symptoms. Based on our findings, we offered recommendations for media–health partnership, practice, and research.
Clouds are a pervasive and unavoidable issue in satellite-borne optical imagery. Accurate, well-documented, and automated cloud detection algorithms are necessary to effectively leverage large ...collections of remotely sensed data. The Landsat project is uniquely suited for comparative validation of cloud assessment algorithms because the modular architecture of the Landsat ground system allows for quick evaluation of new code, and because Landsat has the most comprehensive manual truth masks of any current satellite data archive. Currently, the Landsat Level-1 Product Generation System (LPGS) uses separate algorithms for determining clouds, cirrus clouds, and snow and/or ice probability on a per-pixel basis. With more bands onboard the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI)/Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) satellite, and a greater number of cloud masking algorithms, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is replacing the current cloud masking workflow with a more robust algorithm that is capable of working across multiple Landsat sensors with minimal modification. Because of the inherent error from stray light and intermittent data availability of TIRS, these algorithms need to operate both with and without thermal data. In this study, we created a workflow to evaluate cloud and cloud shadow masking algorithms using cloud validation masks manually derived from both Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS data. We created a new validation dataset consisting of 96 Landsat 8 scenes, representing different biomes and proportions of cloud cover. We evaluated algorithm performance by overall accuracy, omission error, and commission error for both cloud and cloud shadow. We found that CFMask, C code based on the Function of Mask (Fmask) algorithm, and its confidence bands have the best overall accuracy among the many algorithms tested using our validation data. The Artificial Thermal-Automated Cloud Cover Algorithm (AT-ACCA) is the most accurate nonthermal-based algorithm. We give preference to CFMask for operational cloud and cloud shadow detection, as it is derived from a priori knowledge of physical phenomena and is operable without geographic restriction, making it useful for current and future land imaging missions without having to be retrained in a machine-learning environment.
Bicyclic hydrocarbons, and bicyclo1.1.1pentanes (BCPs) in particular, are playing an emerging role as saturated bioisosteres in pharmaceutical, agrochemical and materials chemistry. Taking advantage ...of strain-release strategies, prior synthetic studies have featured the synthesis of bridgehead-substituted (C1, C3) BCPs from 1.1.1propellane. Here, we describe an approach to access multisubstituted BCPs via intramolecular cyclization. In addition to C1,C3-disubstituted BCPs, this method also enables the construction of underexplored multisubstituted (C1, C2 and C3) BCPs from readily accessible cyclobutanones. The broad generality of this method has also been examined through the synthesis of a variety of other caged bicyclic molecules, ranging from 2.1.1 to 3.2.1 scaffolds. The modularity afforded by the pendant bridgehead boron pinacol esters generated during the cyclization reaction has been demonstrated through several downstream functionalizations, highlighting the ability of this approach to enable the programmed and divergent synthesis of multisubstituted bicyclic hydrocarbons.
Metabolic regulation of NLRP3 Hughes, Mark M.; O'Neill, Luke A.J.
Immunological reviews,
January 2018, Volume:
281, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Summary
A shift in our understanding of macrophage biology has come about as a result of recent discoveries in the area of metabolic reprogramming of macrophages. The NLRP3 inflammasome drives the ...activation of caspase‐1, leading to the production of IL‐1β, IL‐18, and a type of cell death termed pyroptosis. The NLRP3 inflammasome has been shown to sense metabolites such as palmitate, uric acid, and cholesterol crystals and is inhibited by ketone bodies produced during metabolic flux. The NLRP3 inflammasome has also been shown to be regulated by mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and components of glycolysis, such as Hexokinase. Here, we review these findings and discuss their importance for inflammation and furthermore discuss potential therapeutic benefits of targeting NLRP3.
The most effective highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) to prevent mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in pregnancy and its efficacy during ...breast-feeding are unknown.
We randomly assigned 560 HIV-1-infected pregnant women (CD4+ count, > or = 200 cells per cubic millimeter) to receive coformulated abacavir, zidovudine, and lamivudine (the nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor NRTI group) or lopinavir-ritonavir plus zidovudine-lamivudine (the protease-inhibitor group) from 26 to 34 weeks' gestation through planned weaning by 6 months post partum. A total of 170 women with CD4+ counts of less than 200 cells per cubic millimeter received nevirapine plus zidovudine-lamivudine (the observational group). Infants received single-dose nevirapine and 4 weeks of zidovudine.
The rate of virologic suppression to less than 400 copies per milliliter was high and did not differ significantly among the three groups at delivery (96% in the NRTI group, 93% in the protease-inhibitor group, and 94% in the observational group) or throughout the breast-feeding period (92% in the NRTI group, 93% in the protease-inhibitor group, and 95% in the observational group). By 6 months of age, 8 of 709 live-born infants (1.1%) were infected (95% confidence interval CI, 0.5 to 2.2): 6 were infected in utero (4 in the NRTI group, 1 in the protease-inhibitor group, and 1 in the observational group), and 2 were infected during the breast-feeding period (in the NRTI group). Treatment-limiting adverse events occurred in 2% of women in the NRTI group, 2% of women in the protease-inhibitor group, and 11% of women in the observational group.
All regimens of HAART from pregnancy through 6 months post partum resulted in high rates of virologic suppression, with an overall rate of mother-to-child transmission of 1.1%. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00270296.)
We consider “twin supergravities”-pairs of supergravities with N+ and N− supersymmetries, N+>N−, with identical bosonic sectors-in the context of tensoring super Yang-Mills multiplets. It is ...demonstrated that the pairs of twin supergravity theories are related through their left and right super Yang-Mills factors. This procedure generates new theories from old ones. In particular, the matter coupled N− twins in D=3, 5, 6 and the N−=1 twins in D=4 have not, as far as we are aware, been obtained previously using the double-copy construction, adding to the growing list of double-copy constructible theories. The use of fundamental matter multiplets in the double-copy construction leads us to introduce a bifundamental scalar that couples to the well-known biadjoint scalar field. It is also shown that certain matter coupled supergravities admit more than one factorization into left and right super Yang-Mills-matter theories.
Community-based palliative care (CBPC) serves seriously ill individuals by integrating care for symptom and stress relief with local health care systems. This review provides the first systematic ...review of the literature to date on the effectiveness of CBPC programs and includes their measures of success, challenges faced, and characteristics of the populations served. A systematic review on CBPC program effectiveness was conducted across four electronic databases for academic articles published through August 2021. PRISMA reporting guidelines were followed throughout this review, study quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool, and results were summarized in a narrative synthesis. The 61 included articles were separated into quantitative and qualitative studies, with eight having mixed methods and belonging to both groups. Overall, the quantitative articles indicate that CBPC programs increase the likelihood that seriously ill patients in their community have their place of death as home, fewer hospitalizations, fewer emergency department visits, decreased hospital length of stays, improved quality of life, and lower health care costs. There was, however, also evidence showing certain programs were unsuccessful in improving the stated outcomes. The qualitative studies reported positive findings and highlighted areas for future program improvement, like training staff and volunteers in communication and other skills. There was a lack of quantitative and qualitative studies investigating CBPC programs in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. In addition, there is a paucity of research examining CBPC program impact on vulnerable and key populations across the globe. Although findings generally support the notion that CBPC programs are a cost-effective way to improve end-of-life quality, further research is needed examining the characteristics of the more successful programs. Findings also suggest the need for collaboration between researchers, health systems, and governments to design and implement effective CBPC programs and to share best practices across communities worldwide.
•Community-based palliative care increases the likelihood of dying at home.•Most studies find community-based palliative care positively impacts costs.•Subgroups with a certain disease or other characteristics sometimes do not benefit.•More research is necessary across different countries and populations.
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