•The connections of the VEN area in anterior insula were mapped with ex-vivo diffusion tractography in apes.•The insular VEN area is connected to highest levels of visual and polysensory processing ...in the temporal lobe.•The insular VEN area is connected with several sensory systems and also systems mediating appetite, reward, aversion and motivation.•Circuitry of the insular VEN area with frontopolar areas may influence the motivation to explore and make choices.•These choices may relate to foraging and socialization, and work in step with introspective states and their resulting strategies and insights.
We mapped the connections of the insular von Economo neuron (VEN) area in ex vivo brains of a bonobo, an orangutan and two gorillas with high angular resolution diffusion MRI imaging acquired in 36 h imaging sessions for each brain. The apes died of natural causes without neurological disorders. The localization of the insular VEN area was based on cresyl violet-stained histological sections from each brain that were coregistered with structural and diffusion images from the same individuals. Diffusion MRI tractography showed that the insular VEN area is connected with olfactory, gustatory, visual and other sensory systems, as well as systems for the mediation of appetite, reward, aversion and motivation. The insular VEN area in apes is most strongly connected with frontopolar cortex, which could support their capacity to choose voluntarily among alternative courses of action particularly in exploring for food resources. The frontopolar cortex may also support their capacity to take note of potential resources for harvesting in the future (prospective memory). All of these faculties may support insight and volitional choice when contemplating courses of action as opposed to rule-based decision-making.
With a large part of the world's population residing in coastal areas, and largely depending on the coastal environment, monitoring natural and human-induced coastal changes are paramount to ...understand the dynamic and vulnerability of these coastal systems/communities. To understand changes in coastal areas, e.g. environmental and social resilience to environmental change, local measurements are inadequate. Such large-scale issues can only be addressed with perhaps less accurate but large scale measurements from space. Considering vulnerability or exposure to coastal flooding, both the bathymetry (underwater) and topography (above water) are vital boundary conditions to understand and accurately estimate impacts on short (storms) and long (inter-seasonal) time-scales. In this work, we estimate the coastal bathymetry and topography with the optical VENμS satellite for every single overpass at the Field Research Facility of the US Army Corps of Engineers at Duck, NC. The experimental VENμS satellite enables estimation of the topography and bathymetry by two repetitive identical images with a small time-lag. This capability proofs to result in topographies with a few meters accuracy and the bathymetry estimation is at best a few decimetres accurate. As a base for future Earth Observation missions such as Landsat or Sentinel 2, VENμS shows that higher resolution imagery (5 m), repetitive bands and a revisit time of only 2 days, enables unprecedented land/sea monitoring.
•We present a study on the monitoring coastal topography and bathymetry from space at the Field Research Facility in DUCK.•An updated bathymetry inversion method, and topography-processing chain is presented.•Bathymetries are sub-metric accurate, topographies to a few meters; both capture coastal features.•We obtained temporal continuum evolution per satellite overpass.•We provide recommendations to future systematic Earth Observation missions such as Landsat / Sentinel 2.
The correction of atmospheric effects is one of the preliminary steps required to make quantitative use of time series of high resolution images from optical remote sensing satellites. An accurate ...atmospheric correction requires good knowledge of the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and of the aerosol type. As a first step, this study compares the performances of two kinds of AOT estimation methods applied to FormoSat-2 and LandSat time series of images: a multi-spectral method that assumes a constant relationship between surface reflectance measurements and a multi-temporal method that assumes that the surface reflectances are stable with time. In a second step, these methods are combined to obtain more accurate and robust estimates. The estimated AOTs are compared to in situ measurements on several sites of the AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network). The methods, based on either spectral or temporal criteria, provide accuracies better than 0.07 in most cases, but show degraded accuracies in some special cases, such as the absence of vegetation for the spectral method or a very quick variation of landscape for the temporal method. The combination of both methods in a new spectro-temporal method increases the robustness of the results in all cases.
To address the limited driving range of electric vehicles (EVs) and promote EVs' penetration, vehicular energy networks (VENs) have emerged and opened possibility to charge EVs in motion via dynamic ...wireless power transfer (DWPT) technology. However, security and efficiency concerns arise due to the untrusted operating environment and EVs' selfish charging/discharging behaviors. Existing trust models rely on the personal recommendations from neighboring EVs to identify malicious entities in VENs, which may cause potential privacy breaches and data misuse for recommenders. Besides, it is challenging to optimally schedule EVs' energy behaviors by considering complex interactions among three energy entities (i.e., energy nodes, charging EVs, and discharging EVs). To this end, by leveraging blockchain technology and game theory, this paper proposes a secure and efficient wireless charging scheme to address these issues in VENs. Firstly, a blockchain-based fine-grained access control mechanism with traceability and auditability is presented to enable EV users to fully control and audit their personal rating data usage during trust management by logging data activities and issuing access tokens into decentralized ledgers. In this manner, the privacy of recommenders can be preserved by fully controlling the access and usage of personal rating data. Furthermore, by introducing cooperative wireless energy transfer mode, a hierarchical game-based energy scheduling algorithm is developed to optimize the strategies of three energy parties tier by tier, while considering their cooperation and competition. Finally, extensive simulations are conducted, which demonstrate that the proposed scheme can effectively improve users' utility and security of energy transmission for EVs, compared with existing representative approaches.
•Examined nine vegetation indices (VI) for estimating green leaf area index (green LAI).•Four vastly different crops were examined: maize, potato, soybean, and wheat.•All four crops had similar green ...LAI vs. VI relationships in vegetative growth stage.•Red edge and green based VIs estimate green LAI accurately in four crops.
Vegetation indices (VIs) have been used previously for estimating green leaf area index (green LAI). However, it has not been verified how characteristics of the relationships between these indices and green LAI (i.e., slope, intercept, standard error) vary for different crops and whether one universal algorithm may be applied for accurate estimation of green LAI. By analyzing the data from four different crops (maize, soybean, wheat, and potato) this study aimed at: (1) determining if the previously used VIs for estimating green LAI in maize and soybean may be applicable for potato and wheat and vice versa; and (2) finding a robust algorithm for green LAI estimation that does not require re-parameterization for each crop. Spectral measurements of wheat and potato were obtained in Israel from 2004 to 2007 and of maize and soybean in the USA from 2001 to 2008, and various VIs calculated using measured reflectance were compared with green LAI measured in the field. For all four crops, ten different VIs were examined. Similarities in relationships between VIs and green LAI were found. Among the examined VIs, two variants of the chlorophyll index and wide dynamic range vegetation index with the green and red edge bands were the most accurate in estimating green LAI in all four crops. Hyperspectral reflectance data were used to determine optimal diagnostic bands for estimating green LAI in four crops using a universal algorithm. The green (530–570nm) and red edge (700–725nm) regions were identified for both the wide dynamic range vegetation index and chlorophyll index as having the lowest errors estimating green LAI. Since the Landsat 8 – OLI has a green spectral band and the forthcoming Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3 and VENμS have both green and red edge bands, it is expected that these VIs can be used to monitor green LAI in multiple crops using a single algorithm by means of near future satellite missions.
This three-volume book investigates the Russian transformations of one of the central concepts of Greek Christology, the self-humiliation or kenosis of Christ. The author applies rhetoric (paradox, ...metaphor, metonymy) as a means to elucidate mechanisms of theological persuasion and to trace the representations of the humiliated Christ and his imitations in various media from liturgy and iconology to everyday practice and literary fiction. The exploration of post-Christian literature of the 19th and 20th century (N. Chernyshevskii, M. Gor’kii, N. Ostrovskii, Ven. Erofeev, Vl. Sorokin) demonstrates the existence of a kenotic Christology after Christianity.
TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) aggregation is the most common pathological hallmark in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and characterizes nearly all patients with motor neuron disease (MND). The ...earliest stages of TDP-43 pathobiology are not well-characterized, and whether neurodegeneration results from TDP-43 loss-of-function or aggregation remains unclear. In the behavioral variant of FTD (bvFTD), patients undergo selective dropout of von Economo neurons (VENs) and fork cells within the frontoinsular (FI) and anterior cingulate cortices. Here, we examined TDP-43 pathobiology within these vulnerable neurons in the FI across a clinical spectrum including 17 patients with sporadic bvFTD, MND, or both. In an exploratory analysis based on our initial observations, we further assessed ten patients with
C9orf72
-associated bvFTD/MND. VENs and fork cells showed early, disproportionate TDP-43 aggregation that correlated with anatomical and clinical severity, including loss of emotional empathy. The presence of a TDP-43 inclusion was associated with striking nuclear and somatodendritic atrophy. An intriguing minority of neurons lacked detectable nuclear TDP-43 despite the apparent absence of a cytoplasmic TDP-43 inclusion. These cells showed neuronal atrophy comparable to inclusion-bearing neurons, suggesting that the loss of nuclear TDP-43 function promotes neurodegeneration, even when TDP-43 aggregation is inconspicuous or absent.
Approximately 30% to 70% of patients with cirrhosis have QT interval prolongation. In patients without cirrhosis, QT prolongation is associated with an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias, such ...as torsade de pointes (TdP). In cirrhotic patients, there is likely a significant association between the corrected QT (QTc) interval and the severity of liver disease, and possibly with increased mortality. We present a stepwise overview of the pathophysiology and management of acquired long QT syndrome in cirrhosis. The QT interval is mainly determined by ventricular repolarization. To compare the QT interval in time it should be corrected for heart rate (QTc), preferably by the Fridericia method. A QTc interval >450 ms in males and >470 ms in females is considered prolonged. The pathophysiological mechanism remains incompletely understood, but may include metabolic, autonomic or hormonal imbalances, cirrhotic heart failure and/or genetic predisposition. Additional external risk factors for QTc prolongation include medication (IKr blockade and altered cytochrome P450 activity), bradycardia, electrolyte abnormalities, underlying cardiomyopathy and acute illness. In patients with cirrhosis, multiple hits and cardiac-hepatic interactions are often required to sufficiently erode the repolarization reserve before long QT syndrome and TdP can occur. While some risk factors are unavoidable, overall risk can be mitigated by electrocardiogram monitoring and avoiding drug interactions and electrolyte and acid-base disturbances. In cirrhotic patients with prolonged QTc interval, a joint effort by cardiologists and hepatologists may be useful and significantly improve the clinical course and outcome. (Gut Liver 2022;16:849-860)
The capability of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) spectral imagery to assess maize yield under full and deficit irrigation is demonstrated by a Tetracam MiniMCA12 11 bands camera. The MiniMCA12 was ...used to image an experimental field of 19 maize hybrids. Yield prediction models were explored for different maize development stages, with the best model found using maize plant development stage reproductive 2 (R2) for both maize grain yield and ear weight (respective R
2
values of 0.73 and 0.49, and root mean square error of validation (RMSEV) values of 2.07 and 3.41 metric tons per hectare using partial least squares regression (PLS-R) validation models). Models using vegetation indices for inputs rather than superspectral data showed similar R
2
but higher RMSEV values, and produced best results for the R4 development stage. In addition to being able to predict yield, spectral models were able to distinguish between different development stages and irrigation treatments. These abilities potentially allow for yield prediction of maize plants whose development stage and water status are unknown.
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