Icebergs, sea ice, blue carbon and Antarctic climate feedbacks

Sea ice, including icebergs, has a complex relationship with the carbon held within animals (blue carbon) in the polar regions. Sea-ice losses around West Antarctica's continental shelf generate longer phytoplankton blooms but also make it a hotspot for coastal iceberg disturbance. This matters because in polar regions ice scour limits blue carbon storage ecosystem services, which work as a powerful negative feedback on climate change (less sea ice increases phytoplankton blooms, benthic growth, seabed carbon and sequestration). This resets benthic biota succession (maintaining regional biodiversity) and also fertilizes the ocean with nutrients, generating phytoplankton blooms, which cascade carbon capture into seabed storage and burial by benthos. Small icebergs scour coastal shallows, whereas giant icebergs ground deeper, offshore. Significant benthic communities establish where ice shelves have disintegrated (giant icebergs calving), and rapidly grow to accumulate blue carbon storage. When 5000 km2 giant icebergs calve, we estimate that they generate approximately 106 tonnes of immobilized zoobenthic carbon per year (t C yr−1). However, their collisions with the seabed crush and recycle vast benthic communities, costing an estimated 4 × 104 t C yr−1. We calculate that giant iceberg formation (ice shelf disintegration) has a net potential of approximately 106 t C yr−1 sequestration benefits as well as more widely known negative impacts

Anomalous Cases of Astronaut Helmet Detection

An astronaut's helmet is an invariant, rigid image element that is well suited for identification and tracking using current machine vision technology. Future space exploration will benefit from the development of astronaut detection software for search and rescue missions based on EVA helmet identification. However, helmets are solid white, except for metal brackets to attach accessories such as supplementary lights. We compared the performance of a widely used machine vision pipeline on a standard-issue NASA helmet with and without affixed experimental feature-rich patterns. Performance on the patterned helmet was far more robust. We found that four different feature-rich patterns are sufficient to identify a helmet and determine orientation as it is rotated about the yaw, pitch, and roll axes. During helmet rotation the field of view changes to frames containing parts of two or more feature-rich patterns. We took reference images in these locations to fill in detection gaps. These multiple feature-rich patterns references added substantial benefit to detection, however, they generated the majority of the anomalous cases. In these few instances, our algorithm keys in on one feature-rich pattern of the multiple feature-rich pattern reference and makes an incorrect prediction of the location of the other feature-rich patterns. We describe and make recommendations on ways to mitigate anomalous cases in which detection of one or more feature-rich patterns fails. While the number of cases is only a small percentage of the tested helmet orientations, they illustrate important design considerations for future spacesuits. In addition to our four successful feature-rich patterns, we present unsuccessful patterns and discuss the cause of their poor performance from a machine vision perspective. Future helmets designed with these considerations will enable automated astronaut detection and thereby enhance mission operations and extraterrestrial search and rescue

To dopamine and beyond, a review of the mechanisms of Parkinson's disease

Parkinson’s Disease is a disorder of the midbrain dopaminergic system with characteristic neurodegenerative patterns, recognized for its motor symptoms. The neurodegeneration is most prevalent in the substantia nigra pars compacta, while dopaminergic neurons in neighboring structures are comparatively spared. There are many possible explanations for this disparity, including differences in tolerance to oxidative stress, and vulnerability to α-synuclein aggregates. The substantia nigra is part of the basal ganglia, a network of nuclei in the midbrain and base of the forebrain which are responsible for coordinating voluntary movement. Dopamine has an inhibitory effect in the basal ganglia. It dampens signals to remove noise, so the basal ganglia circuitry is not hyperactive. In the absence of dopamine, the flow of information through the basal ganglia is disrupted. This results in tremor, bradykinesia, and rigidity, known as the classic triad. No cure currently exists and therapies are unable to slow disease progression, so treatments are aimed at symptom management. Degenerative processes in Parkinson’s Disease occur rapidly, early in the disease progression, with about 60% neuronal death in the substantia nigra prior to diagnosis. There is a need for biomarkers or other signs which can be used to clinically to diagnose the disease at an earlier stage. In conclusion this paper provides suggestions for future lines of research

Remote sensing applied to landslide risk management and governance

The main objective of this doctoral thesis is to analyze the use of remote sensors, the information that can be obtained to determine how these sensors and methodologies can be used to generate and update geospatial information for risk management and governance. To acquire this objective, after an extensive review, it is intended to develop from a purely practical and applied point of view, which are materialized in different case studies. And, applied to projects that are immersed in risk management focused on mass movements in Ecuador. This thesis is conformed of six chapters addressing mass movements from different perspectives objectives and, study areas

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals

Machine Vision Identification of Airport Runways With Visible and Infrared Videos

A widely used machine vision pipeline based on the Speeded-Up Robust Features feature detector was applied to the problem of identifying a runway from a universe of known runways, which was constructed using video records of 19 straight-in glidepath approaches to nine runways. The recordings studied included visible, short-wave infrared, and long-wave infrared videos in clear conditions, rain, and fog. Both daytime and nighttime runway approaches were used. High detection specificity (identification of the runway approached and rejection of the other runways in the universe) was observed in all conditions (greater than 90% Bayesian posterior probability). In the visible band, repeatability (identification of a given runway across multiple videos of it) was observed only if illumination (day versus night) was the same and approach visibility was good. Some repeatability was found across visible and shortwave sensor bands. Camera-based geolocation during aircraft landing was compared to the standard Charted Visual Approach Procedure

MARLI: a mobile application for regional landslide inventories in Ecuador

[EN] The regions of Central and South America most susceptible to the occurrence of landslides will become even more vulnerable in the context of climate change. The Josefina disaster, in 1993, demonstrated both the vulnerability of local infrastructures and communities in the Paute River basin (Ecuador). Since this natural phenomena, several landslide inventories and susceptibility studies were developed, revealing the vulnerability of the Paute River basin to unstable terrain and the need for further studies throughout the basin. Despite this, no studies have been done since then to update the information generated. This paper describes a Mobile Application for Regional Landslide Inventories (MARLI), a simple but efficient open-access platform to report landslide events using the Open Data Kit system. Its design makes reporting fast, simple and cost-effective with an added benefit, and a specialized knowledge is not required for its use. MARLI was tested for the collection of landslides in Cuenca (Ecuador). From the data taken in the field, it was possible to analyze the performance and suitability of collected data and compare the results with regional inventories in the same area. Additionally, these results can be used for the elaboration and update of large-scale inventories or the training of automatic identification systems of landslides and later evaluation of their precision in a small-medium scale. Likewise, this product constitutes a fundamental input for the formulation of mitigation strategies, to formulate the appropriate response and in time, also the elaboration of reconstruction plans before the increase in the occurrence of such phenomenaSIThis study was supported by the Land Laboratory Research Group (G.I.-1934-TB) (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain) and the University of Azuay (Cuenca, Ecuador) (Project No: 2016-53)

Publicación de contaminantes atmosféricos de la estación de monitoreo de la ciudad de Cuenca, utilizando servicios estándares OGC

La contaminación del aire ambiente es  una constante amenaza para la salud humana y el ambiente, requiriendo la toma de decisiones respecto a la prevención, control y mitigación de sus impactos. Para tal fin el GAD Municipal del cantón Cuenca, y en particular la Empresa Municipal de Movilidad Transito y Trasporte (EMOV-EP), dispone de una estación de monitoreo continuo de agentes contaminantes atmosféricos. Este sistema de monitoreo, sin embargo, presenta limitaciones relacionadas con la publicación de la información capturada, siendo actualmente publicada únicamente en medios impresos y almacenada sin publicación en la web. El objetivo de este trabajo es desarrollar un mecanismo para gestionar y publicar la información registrada en la estación de monitoreo continuo de agentes contaminantes atmosféricos para beneficio de autoridades locales, técnicos y la sociedad civil en general. Esto se realiza a través de la generación de un índice general de la calidad aire (IGCA) y la publicación de dicha información  en  la  web por  medios  que  sean  de  fácil  acceso  y comprensión para la sociedad en común. Para el IGCA se utiliza la normativa nacional Texto Unificado de Legislación Ambiental Secundaria (TULSMA) y la normativa internacional proporcionada por Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Para la publicación web se utiliza el servicio estándar Sensor Observation Service (SOS) del Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Los resultados se presentan como una plataforma base para la gestión, monitoreo y publicación de los contaminantes atmosféricos de la ciudad (O3, CO, NO2, SO2, PM2.5). Además de presentar un índice general de calidad del aire (IGCA) e índices por contaminante registrado, también se publican  gráficas estadísticas del comportamiento temporal de las  variables contaminantes. Esta plataforma presenta el potencial  de convertirse en una verdadera herramienta para la gestión ambiental y la toma de decisiones que contribuya con el buen vivir de los Cuencanos

Prevalence of Neonatal Tetanus in Northeastern Nigeria

Background: Neonatal tetanus (NNT), a deadly vaccine preventable disease and one of the most underreported diseases in the developing countries, is seen in the newborn within the first 28 days of life. NNT remains one of the leading causes of deaths among neonates in the developing countries with about 130,000 neonatal deaths recorded in 2004. In the 1989 World Health Assembly and the 1990 world summit for children, WHO/UNICEF together with partner agencies called for the elimination of tetanus by 1995. Despite the global success recorded in the NNT elimination strategy, Nigeria is still among the 25 remaining countries that are yet to achieve the global NNT elimination target as set by the WHO. Study Design: Retrospective study Methods: This quantitative cross-sectional study involved mothers who gave birth to NNT babies between January 2008 and December 2013. . The study used secondary dataset collected by trained NNT surveillance officers in the northeast zone of Nigeria using a standard tool. Results: Although the trend of NNT in the region showed a decrease in cases with fewer cases 9% (27/306) recorded in 2013, the prevalence rate of NNT was unacceptably high at 28.815%. Conclusion: Though at a slow pace, it is clear that the measures put in place by the Nigerian government towards meeting the 2015 NNT elimination deadline is yielding positive results. In spite this, there is need for policy makers to increase their commitments to ensure that Nigeria meet up with the 2015 NNT elimination deadline