GIS Applications

This roundtable discusses various GIS applications in different fields. Purdue\u27s Center for Regional Development presents harmonized space-time data and measures: a study of race, ethnicity and poverty . Prof. Darrell Schulze from Agronomy and Purdue Center for Environmental and Regulatory Information Systems showcase SoilExplorer, a soil map application for teaching and learning soil science. Mark Ehle, Tippcanoe County GIS administrator, introduces the county\u27s GIS services and maps

Observation Locator Table Access Protocol Version 1.0

The Observation Locator Table Access Protocol (ObsLocTAP) defines a data model for scheduled observations and a method to run queries over compliant data, using several Virtual Observatory technologies. The data model builds on the ObsCore data model, removing elements associated with dataset access that are not available during the planning phase. In this way, this standard is focused on access to metadata related to the planning of a certain observatory, more than on access to the scientific data products. Also, the data model will be focused on discovery of planned observations, which is very useful information for multi-wavelength coordination observations, re-planning information propagation, follow-up of Targets of Opportunity alerts, preparation of proposals, etc. As with ObsCore, a serialisation into a relational table is defined, which allows users to run complex queries using the IVOA Table Access Protocol. The document also prescribes how to register and discover ObsLocTAP services

Sleep and Fatigue Symptoms in Children and Adolescents With CKD: A Cross-sectional Analysis From the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKiD) Study

BACKGROUND: Although symptoms of sleepiness and fatigue are common among adults with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), little is known about the prevalence of these symptoms in children with CKD. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis within a cohort study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS: We describe the frequency and severity of sleep problems and fatigue, and we assess the extent of their association with measured glomerular filtration rate (mGFR) and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) among 301 participants of the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children cohort. OUTCOMES AND MEASUREMENTS: Sleep and fatigue-related items from the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 Generic Scales and the CKD-related Symptoms List were used. RESULTS: Median mGFR was 42.0 ml/min/1.73m(2) (25th–75th percentiles, 31.2–53.2) [EF1]and median age was 13.9 years (25th–75th percentiles, 10.8–16.2). Children with mGFR 40-<50, 30-<40, or <30 had 2.07 (95% CI, 1.05–4.09), 2.35 (95% CI 1.17, 4.72) and 2.59 (95% CI 1.15, 5.85) higher odds of having more severe parent reports of low energy than children with mGFR ≥50. Compared to participants with mGFR ≥50, those with mGFR <30 had 3.92 (95% CI 1.37, 11.17) higher odds of reporting more severe weakness, and those with mGFR 40-<50 had 2.95 (95% CI 1.26, 6.88) higher odds of falling asleep during the day. Low energy, trouble sleeping and weakness were associated with lower HRQOL scores. LIMITATIONS: Symptoms of sleep and fatigue represent the child or parent’s perception of symptom severity, while individual items can lead to imprecise measurements of sleep and fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: Lower mGFR was associated with increased weakness, low energy, and daytime sleepiness. Furthermore, a strong association between trouble sleeping, low energy and weakness with decrements in overall HRQOL was observed. Detection and treatment of poor sleep and fatigue may improve the development and HRQOL of children and adolescents with CKD

Mastitis Is Associated with Increased Free Fatty Acids, Somatic Cell Count, and Interleukin-8 Concentrations in Human Milk

BACKGROUND: Research in bovine lactation has demonstrated that milk produced by a mammary gland displaying inflammation-based symptoms of mastitis has increased levels of free fatty acids (FFAs) compared with milk produced by a contralateral asymptomatic gland. However, the effects of mastitis on lipid classes in milk have not been investigated in humans. METHODS: The study described here compared milk collected from the symptomatic breast of women with mastitis (n=14) with that collected from the contralateral asymptomatic breast to determine if mastitis caused alterations in the quantity of total lipids, FFAs, and phospholipids (PLs), as well as the fatty acid profiles of these lipid classes. To assess their efficacy as biomarkers of mastitis, samples were also analyzed for selected markers of local inflammation: sodium, somatic cell count (SCC), and interleukin-8 (IL-8). RESULTS: FFAs were higher in milk from the mastitic breast compared with that from the healthy breast (1.31 vs. 1.07±0.10 g/100 g of lipid, p<0.05). Similarly, SCC and IL-8 were elevated roughly 10-fold in milk from mastitic breasts, compared with milk from healthy breasts, and sodium tended to be higher in milk from mastitic breasts (p<0.10). However, there were no differences in total lipid, PLs, or fatty acid profiles within each lipid class. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, mastitis is associated with increased lipolysis in the human breast but not alterations in milk fat synthesis, as evidenced by a lack of alteration in total milk lipids. Additionally, these results indicate that SCC and IL-8 may be better indicators of mammary inflammation than sodium content

Effects of reproductive stage and 11-ketotestosterone on LPL mRNA levels in the ovary of the shortfinned eel

To understand the dynamics of lipid uptake into the ovary and the potential role that lipoprotein lipase plays in this event, changes in LPL transcript abundance during oogenesis were measured in both wild-caught and pituitary homogenate-induced artificially maturing eels. Also, the effects of 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT) on LPL mRNA levels were investigated in vivo and in vitro. Normalized ovarian LPL transcript abundance increased as oogenesis advanced, and it rose particularly rapidly during midvitellogenesis, corresponding to pronounced increases in ovarian lipid deposits and LPL activity. Furthermore, LPL mRNA levels were dramatically increased following 11-KT treatment in vivo, findings that were reinforced as trends in ovarian tissue incubated in vitro. Ovarian LPL appears to be directly involved in the uptake of lipids into the eel ovary, an involvement that appears to be controlled, at least in part, by the androgen 11-KT

INTEGRAL reloaded: Spacecraft, instruments and ground system

International audienceThe European Space Agency’s INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (ESA/INTEGRAL) was launched aboard a Proton-DM2 rocket on 17 October 2002 at 06:41 CEST, from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Since then, INTEGRAL has been providing long, uninterrupted observations (up to about 47h, or 170ksec, per satellite orbit of 2.7 days) with a large field-of-view (FOV, fully coded: 100 deg2), millisecond time resolution, keV energy resolution, polarization measurements, as well as additional wavelength coverage at optical wavelengths. This is realized by two main instruments in the 15keV to 10MeV energy range, the spectrometer SPI (spectral resolution 3keV at 1.8MeV) and the imager IBIS (angular resolution: 12arcmin FWHM), complemented by X-ray (JEM-X; 3–35keV) and optical (OMC; Johnson V-band) monitor instruments. All instruments are co-aligned to simultaneously observe the target region. A particle radiation monitor (IREM) measures charged particle fluxes near the spacecraft. The Anti-coincidence subsystems of the main instruments, built to reduce the background, are also very efficient all-sky γ-ray detectors, which provide virtually omni-directional monitoring above ∼75keV. Besides the long, scheduled observations, INTEGRAL can rapidly (within a couple of hours) re-point and conduct Target of Opportunity (ToO) observations on a large variety of sources. INTEGRAL observations and their scientific results have been building an impressive legacy: The discovery of currently more than 600 new high-energy sources; the first-ever direct detection of 56Ni and 56Co radio-active decay lines from a Type Ia supernova; spectroscopy of isotopes from galactic nucleo-synthesis sources; new insights on enigmatic positron annihilation in the Galactic bulge and disk; and pioneering gamma-ray polarization studies. INTEGRAL is also a successful actor in the new multi-messenger astronomy introduced by non-electromagnetic signals from gravitational waves and from neutrinos: INTEGRAL found the first prompt electromagnetic radiation in coincidence with a binary neutron star merger. Up to now more than 1750 scientific papers based on INTEGRAL data have been published in refereed journals. In this paper, we will give a comprehensive update of the satellite status after more than 18 years of operations in a harsh space environment, and an account of the successful Ground Segment