Evaluation of Important Treatment Parameters in Supraphysiological Thermal Therapy of Human Liver Cancer HepG2 Cells

This study was aimed at simulating the effect of various treatment parameters like heating rate (HR), peak temperature (PT) and hold/total treatment time on the viability of human liver cancer HepG2 cells subjected to different thermal therapy conditions. The problem was approached by investigating the injury kinetics obtained using experimentally measured viability of the cells, heated to temperatures of 50–70°C for 0–9 min at HRs of 100, 200, 300 and 525°C min(−1). An empirical expression obtained between the activation energy (E) and HR was extended to obtain the E values over a broad range of HRs from 5 to 600°C min(−1) that mimic the actual conditions encountered in a typical thermal therapy protocol. Further, the effect of the HR (5–600°C min(−1)) and PT (50–85°C) on the cell survival was studied over a range of hold times. A significant drop in survival from 90% to 0% with the simultaneous increase in HR and PT was observed as the hold time increased from 0 to 5 min. For complete cell death, the hold time increased with the increase in the HR for a given PT, while the total time showed presence of minima for 60, 65 and 70°C at HRs of 50, 100 and 200°C min(−1), respectively

A global reference database of crowdsourced cropland data collected using the Geo-Wiki platform

A global reference data set on cropland was collected through a crowdsourcing campaign using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing tool. The campaign lasted three weeks, with over 80 participants from around the world reviewing almost 36,000 sample units, focussing on cropland identification. For quality assessment purposes, two additional data sets are provided. The first is a control set of 1,793 sample locations validated by students trained in satellite image interpretation. This data set was used to assess the quality of the crowd as the campaign progressed. The second data set contains 60 expert validations for additional evaluation of the quality of the contributions. All data sets are split into two parts: the first part shows all areas classified as cropland and the second part shows cropland average per location and user. After further processing, the data presented here might be suitable to validate and compare medium and high resolution cropland maps generated using remote sensing. These could also be used to train classification algorithms for developing new maps of land cover and cropland extent

A global reference database of crowdsourced cropland data collected using the Geo-Wiki platform

A global reference data set on cropland was collected through a crowdsourcing campaign using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing tool. The campaign lasted three weeks, with over 80 participants from around the world reviewing almost 36,000 sample units, focussing on cropland identification. For quality assessment purposes, two additional data sets are provided. The first is a control set of 1,793 sample locations validated by students trained in satellite image interpretation. This data set was used to assess the quality of the crowd as the campaign progressed. The second data set contains 60 expert validations for additional evaluation of the quality of the contributions. All data sets are split into two parts: the first part shows all areas classified as cropland and the second part shows cropland average per location and user. After further processing, the data presented here might be suitable to validate and compare medium and high resolution cropland maps generated using remote sensing. These could also be used to train classification algorithms for developing new maps of land cover and cropland extent

WorldCereal: a dynamic open-source system for global-scale, seasonal, and reproducible crop and irrigation mapping

The challenge of global food security in the face of population growth, conflict and climate change requires a comprehensive understanding of cropped areas, irrigation practices and the distribution of major commodity crops like maize and wheat. However, such understanding should preferably be updated at seasonal intervals for each agricultural system rather than relying on a single annual assessment. Here we present the European Space Agency funded WorldCereal system, a global, seasonal, and reproducible crop and irrigation mapping system that addresses existing limitations in current global-scale crop and irrigation mapping. WorldCereal generates a range of global products, including temporary crop extent, seasonal maize and cereals maps, seasonal irrigation maps, seasonal active cropland maps, and confidence layers providing insights into expected product quality. The WorldCereal product suite for the year 2021 presented here serves as a global demonstration of the dynamic open-source WorldCereal system. The presented products are fully validated, e.g., global user's and producer's accuracies for the annual temporary crop product are 88.5 % and 92.1 %, respectively. The WorldCereal system provides a vital tool for policymakers, international organizations, and researchers to better understand global crop and irrigation patterns and inform decision-making related to food security and sustainable agriculture. Our findings highlight the need for continued community efforts such as additional reference data collection to support further development and push the boundaries for global agricultural mapping from space. The global products are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7875104 (Van Tricht et al., 2023)

Can Ciprofloxacin be Used for Precision Treatment of Gonorrhea in Public STD Clinics? Assessment of Ciprofloxacin Susceptibility and an Opportunity for Point-of-Care Testing

Background: Given the lack of new antimicrobials to treat Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) infections, reusing previously recommended antimicrobials has been proposed as a strategy to control the spread of multi-drug-resistant NG. We assessed ciprofloxacin susceptibility in a large sample set of NG isolates and identified correlates associated with ciprofloxacin-resistant NG infections. Methods: NG isolates collected in Baltimore, Maryland between 2014 and 2016 were evaluated by Gyrase A (gyrA) PCR and E-test for susceptibility to ciprofloxacin. Clinical characteristics and demographics were evaluated by multivariate regression analysis to identify correlates of ciprofloxacin-resistant NG infections. Results: 510 NG isolates from predominately African American (96.5%), heterosexual (85.7%), and HIV-negative (92.5%) male subjects were included in the study. The overall percentage of isolates with mutant gyrA sequences, indicative of ciprofloxacin resistance, was 32.4%, and significantly increased from 24.7% in 2014 to 45.2% in 2016 (p < 0.001). Participants older than 35 years of age were 2.35 times more likely to have a gyrA mutant NG infection than younger participants (p < 0.001). Race, sexual orientation, symptomology, or co-infection the HIV or syphilis were not associated with a particular NG gyrA genotype. Conclusions: Resistance to ciprofloxacin in Baltimore is lower than other regions and indicates that in this environment, use of ciprofloxacin may be appropriate for targeted treatment provided utilization of enhanced surveillance tools. The targeted use of ciprofloxacin may be more beneficial for individuals under 35 years of age. Point-of-care tests for NG diagnosis and susceptibility testing are urgently needed to identify individuals who can be treated with this targeted approach

WorldCereal open global harmonized reference data repository (CC-BY licensed data sets)

Within the ESA funded WorldCereal project we have built an open harmonized reference data repository at global extent for model training or product validation in support of land cover and crop type mapping. Data from 2017 onwards were collected from many different sources and then harmonized, annotated and evaluated. These steps are explained in the harmonization protocol (10.5281/zenodo.7584463). This protocol also clarifies the naming convention of the shape files and the WorldCereal attributes (LC, CT, IRR, valtime and sampleID) that were added to the original data sets. This publication includes those harmonized data sets of which the original data set was published under the CC-BY license or a license similar to CC-BY. See document "_In-situ-data-World-Cereal - license - CC-BY.pdf" for an overview of the original data sets

Clinical manifestations of new versus recrudescent malaria infections following anti-malarial drug treatment

Background Distinguishing new from recrudescent infections in post-treatment episodes of malaria is standard in anti-malarial drug efficacy trials. New infections are not considered malaria treatment failures and as a result, the prevention of subsequent episodes of malaria infection is not reported as a study outcome. However, in moderate and high transmission settings, new infections are common and the ability of a short-acting medication to cure an initial infection may be outweighed by its inability to prevent the next imminent infection. The clinical benefit of preventing new infections has never been compared to that of curing the initial infection. Methods Children enrolled in a sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine efficacy study in Blantyre, Malawi from 1998–2004 were prospectively evaluated. Six neutral microsatellites were used to classify new and recrudescent infections in children aged less than 10 years with recurrent malaria infections. Children from the study who did not experience recurrent parasitaemia comprised the baseline group. The odds of fever and anaemia, the rate of haemoglobin recovery and time to recurrence were compared among the groups. Results Fever and anemia were more common among children with parasitaemia compared to those who remained infection-free throughout the study period. When comparing recrudescent vs. new infections, the incidence of fever was not statistically different. However, children with recrudescent infections had a less robust haematological recovery and also experienced recurrence sooner than those whose infection was classified as new. Conclusions The results of this study confirm the paramount importance of providing curative treatment for all malaria infections. Although new and recrudescent infections caused febrile illnesses at a similar rate, recurrence due to recrudescent infection did have a worsened haemological outcome than recurrence due to new infections. Local decision-makers should take into account the results of genotyping to distinguish new from recrudescent infections when determining treatment policy on a population level. It is appropriate to weigh recrudescent malaria more heavily than new infection in assessing treatment efficacy

WorldCereal open global harmonized reference data repository (CC-BY-SA licensed data sets)

Within the ESA funded WorldCereal project we have built an open harmonized reference data repository at global extent for model training or product validation in support of land cover and crop type mapping. Data from 2017 onwards were collected from many different sources and then harmonized, annotated and evaluated. These steps are explained in the harmonization protocol (10.5281/zenodo.7584463). This protocol also clarifies the naming convention of the shape files and the WorldCereal attributes (LC, CT, IRR, valtime and sampleID) that were added to the original data sets. This publication includes those harmonized data sets of which the original data set was published under the CC-BY-SA license or a license similar to CC-BY-SA. See document "_In-situ-data-World-Cereal - license - CC-BY-SA.pdf" for an overview of the original data sets