For several years passive microwave observations have been used to retrieve soil moisture from the Earth's surface. Low frequency observations have the most sensitivity to soil moisture, therefore ...the current Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and future Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) satellite missions observe the Earth's surface in the L-band frequency. In the past, several satellite sensors such as the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) and WindSat have been used to retrieve surface soil moisture using multi-channel observations obtained at higher microwave frequencies. While AMSR-E and WindSat lack an L-band channel, they are able to leverage multi-channel microwave observations to estimate additional land surface parameters. In particular, the availability of Ka-band observations allows AMSR-E and WindSat to obtain coincident surface temperature estimates required for the retrieval of surface soil moisture. In contrast, SMOS and SMAP carry only a single frequency radiometer and therefore lack an instrument suited to estimate the physical temperature of the Earth. Instead, soil moisture algorithms from these new generation satellites rely on ancillary sources of surface temperature (e.g. re-analysis or near real time data from weather prediction centres). A consequence of relying on such ancillary data is the need for temporal and spatial interpolation, which may introduce uncertainties. Here, two newly-developed, large-scale soil moisture evaluation techniques, the triple collocation (TC) approach and the Rvalue data assimilation approach, are applied to quantify the global-scale impact of replacing Ka-band based surface temperature retrievals with Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) surface temperature output on the accuracy of WindSat and AMSR-E based surface soil moisture retrievals. Results demonstrate that under sparsely vegetated conditions, the use of MERRA land surface temperature instead of Ka-band radiometric land surface temperature leads to a relative decrease in skill (on average 9.7%) of soil moisture anomaly estimates. However the situation is reversed for highly vegetated conditions where soil moisture anomaly estimates show a relative increase in skill (on average 13.7%) when using MERRA land surface temperature. In addition, a pre-processing technique to shift phase of the modelled surface temperature is shown to generally enhance the value of MERRA surface temperature estimates for soil moisture retrieval. Finally, a very high correlation (R^2 = 0.95) and consistency between the two evaluation techniques lends further credibility to the obtained results.
The International Society of Urological Pathology held a conference devoted to issues in testicular and penile pathology in Boston in March 2015, which included a presentation and discussion led by ...the testis microscopic features working group. This conference focused on controversies related to staging and reporting of testicular tumors and was preceded by an online survey of the International Society of Urological Pathology members. The survey results were used to initiate discussions, but decisions were made by expert consensus rather than voting. A number of recommendations emerged from the conference, including that lymphovascular invasion (LVI) should always be reported and no distinction need be made between lymphatic or blood invasion. If LVI is equivocal, then it should be regarded as negative to avoid triggering unnecessary therapy. LVI in the spermatic cord is considered as category pT2, not pT3, unless future studies provide contrary evidence. At the time of gross dissection, a block should be taken just superior to the epididymis to define the base of the spermatic cord, and direct invasion of tumor in this block indicates a category of pT3. Pagetoid involvement of the rete testis epithelium must be distinguished from rete testis stromal invasion, with only the latter being prognostically useful. Percentages of different tumor elements in mixed germ cell tumors should be reported. Although consensus was reached on many issues, there are still areas of practice that need further evidence on which to base firm recommendations.
Recently, dose delivery technology has rapidly evolved with flattening filter-free beams (FFF), and the biological effects of high dose rates are a matter of interest. We hypothesized that FFF beams ...at different dose rates obtained with modern linear accelerators have different effects on the TME.
The B16–F10 melanoma syngeneic tumor model was established, and mice were randomized to 2 different doses (2 Gy and 10 Gy) and 3 different dose rates (1 Gy/min, 6 Gy/min, and 14 Gy/min) along with the control group. Euthanasia was performed on the seventh day after RT, and intracardiac blood was collected for a comet assay. Tumors were harvested and examined histomorphologically and immunohistochemically. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software version 23 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).
The daily growth rate was uniform, and no difference was observed between tumor volumes across all three dose rates for each dose. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage in blood mononuclear cells was not affected by dose or dose rate. In the TME histomorphological examination, the number of mitosis is less in the 10 Gy arm, whereas the pleomorphism score was greater. Nevertheless, varying dose rates had no effect on the number of mitosis or the pleomorphism score. The severity of the inflammation, cell densities in the TME, and expression of immunohistochemical markers were comparable across all doses and dose rates.
In our study involving the B16–F10 syngeneic tumor model, varying dose rates obtained with FFF beams had no effect on tumor volume, blood mononuclear cell DNA damage, or TME parameters. However, in order to fully understand the biological impacts of novel techniques, our study should be validated with alternative preclinical setups.
•We built a syngeneic tumor model with B16–F10 malignant melanoma cells.•We investigated the impact of varying FFF dose rates (1-6-14 Gy/min) on TME.•There was no effect of dose or dose rate on DNA damage in blood mononuclear cells.•Low, moderate, and high dose rates showed no variation in tumor sizes.•No different effects were observed on TME.
A review on the historical evolution of seismic hazard maps in Turkey is followed by summarizing the important aspects of the updated national probabilistic seismic hazard maps. Comparisons with the ...predecessor probabilistic seismic hazard maps as well as the implications on the national design codes conclude the paper.
Soil moisture datasets vary greatly with respect to their time series variability and signal-to-noise characteristics. Minimizing differences in signal variances is particularly important in data ...assimilation to optimize the accuracy of the analysis obtained after merging model and observation datasets. Strategies that reduce these differences are typically based on rescaling the observation time series to match the model. As a result, the impact of the relative accuracy of the model reference dataset is often neglected. In this study, the impacts of the relative accuracies of model- and observation-based soil moisture time series—for seasonal and subseasonal (anomaly) components, respectively—on optimal model–observation integration are investigated. Experiments are performed using both well-controlled synthetic and real data test beds. Investigated experiments are based on rescaling observations to a model using strategies with decreasing aggressiveness: 1) using the seasonality of the model directly while matching the variance of the observed anomaly component, 2) rescaling the seasonality and the anomaly components separately, and 3) rescaling the entire time series as one piece or for each monthly climatology. All experiments use a simple antecedent precipitation index model and assimilate observations via a Kalman filtering approach. Synthetic and real data assimilation results demonstrate that rescaling observations more aggressively to the model is favorable when the model is more skillful than observations; however, rescaling observations more aggressively to the model can degrade the Kalman filter analysis if observations are relatively more accurate.
Purpose
Incisional hernia repair is a frequently performed operation worldwide. In this experimental study, our aim is to present the incisional hernia model after creating midline laparotomy and ...several type of defects on abdominal wall of the rats. Thereby, the method determined here may be used in future experimental incisional hernia repair studies.
Methods
After approval, 32 male rats were randomly seperated into 4 groups of 8 animals each, and were operated to form an incisional hernia; Sham group, 5 cm incision group, 5 cm incision plus capitonnage group, and 5 cm incision plus 2 × 4 cm muscle excision group, respectively. On the 28th postoperative day after killing, the abdominal anterior wall of rats were removed for histopathological and biomechanic examination.
Results
The incisional hernia size was found to be statistically different in at least one group (
p
= 0.001). The incisional hernia size in Group 4 was found to be significantly higher than Group 2 (
p
= 0.001). When the tension and elongation values were examined, there was a difference in at least one group (
p
< 0.001 and
p
= 0.029, respectively). Histopathological examination shows that the degree of inflammation and fibrosis varies significantly (
p
= 0.001 and
p
= 0.002, respectively).
Conclusion
This study has lead us to believe that the rat model created by applying muscle excision from the midline of the abdomen is the ideal incisional hernia model that can be used in future experimental incisional hernia studies.
A highly scalable approach for producing surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates is introduced. The novel method involves assembling individual nanoparticles in pre‐defined templates, one ...particle per template, forming a high denisity of nanogaps over large areas, while decoupling nanostructure synthesis from placement.
The physical–chemical properties and fatty acid composition of sheep subcutaneous, tallow, intestinal, and tail fats were determined. Sheep fat types contained C
16:0
, C
18:0
, and C
18:1
as the ...major components of fatty acid composition (19.56–23.40, 20.77–29.50, 32.07–38.30%, respectively). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) study revealed that two characteristic peaks were detected in both crystallization and melting curves. Major peaks (
T
peak
) of tallow and intestinal fats were similar and determined as 31.25–24.69 and 7.44–3.90 °C, respectively, for crystallization peaks and 15.36–13.44 and 45.98–44.60 °C, respectively, for melting peaks in DSC curves; but those of tail fat (18.29 and −2.13 °C for crystallization peaks and 6.56 and 33.46 °C for melting peaks) differed remarkably from those of other fat types.
The top 100 physicians of otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery worldwide were investigated using the Google Scholar h-index.
Although there are various bibliometrics ranking systems that ...present the academic quantity and quality of scientists' published articles, the h-index is the most popular and widely accepted. In this study, Google Scholar was used to search all the keywords involving all the subspecialties of otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery, with the aim of identifying as many physicians as possible. Obtaining the Google Scholar h-index and citations is not possible for scientists who do not have Google Scholar accounts. Thus, only those with Google Scholar accounts were included.
The average h-index of all 100 physicians enrolled in the study was 37.83, with a range of 25-81.
The current study details the academic impact of otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery physicians worldwide based on the Google Scholar h-index.
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