Satellites: ambition for forest initiative

Full text (Correspondence is 300 words). Lynch et al. (Nature 496, 293-294; 2013) are surely right to say that satellites are essential for monitoring deforestation under the REDD+ provisions of a future climate agreement; indeed the need to use remotely sensed and ground based data in combination for this purpose was formally recognized by decision of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) of Parties in 2009. What seems less likely is that a comprehensive rapid response monitoring system will, as Lynch et al. hope, be enshrined in international law under the UNFCCC at the 19th Conference of Parties, in Warsaw later this year. Nature is perhaps not the appropriate place to debate national sovereignty concerns, but these would represent a significant barrier to putting in place such a proposal. Cloud is also a constraint on optical remote sensing although screening and compositing methods can help reduce its effects. Radar can penetrate cloud but in our view is not yet established as an operational means for the capture of changes to forest ecosystems in the suitably systematic and repeatable manner required for monitoring deforestation although may become operationally relevant in the future. As participants in these processes we disagree strongly with the suggestion that the outputs of Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics Programme (GOFC-GOLD) or the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) lack ambition and an understanding of the potential of satellites. On the contrary the aim of these activities is show objectively and without bias in favour of one approach or another how remote sensing helps systematic global monitoring to make REDD+ a reality, in the context of wider societal engagement and capacity building that are essential for its success.JRC.H.3-Forest Resources and Climat

Observed global changes in sector-relevant climate extremes indices—an extension to HadEX3

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The gridded dataset are available at www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadex3 and at www.climdex.org. In addition, a version is available on the CEDA archive (https://dx.doi.org/10.5285/2bfbdba03d9b423f99cadf404ca2daab). The underlying station indices will be made available on www.climdex.org where we are allowed to do so. For some collections we are not allowed to make the underlying station data public under terms of their licence.Please read abstract in the article.PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY : To be able to assess changes in extreme temperature and rainfall events across the globe, data sets which capture characteristics of these extreme events are required. The use of indices for these characteristics further enables both data sharing and the comparison of events across the world. Extreme events have impacts across human health, our infrastructure and the natural environment. So far there has not been a global product which presents indices which are relevant for different sectors of our society, including health, agriculture and water resources. In this work we present an extension to an existing data set of extremes indices, HadEX3, by including indices defined by the World Meteorological Organization which were developed with sector specific applications in mind. We have used the same approach and methodology, and where possible the same underlying daily temperature and rainfall observations. The temperature indices show changes consistent with global scale warming, with heat wave characteristics showing increases in the number, duration and intensity of these extreme events in most places. The data files are available for use by interested researchers in their work.The Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme funded by DSIT and by the UK-China Research & Innovation Partnership Fund through the Met Office Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) China under the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF); Australian Research Council Grant; the Horizon 2020 LANDMARC project; the RED-CLIMA (Red Española e Iberoamericana sobre Variabilidad Climática y Servicios Climáticos en Ecosistemas Terrestres y Marinos: RED-CLIMA) Project from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas LINCGLOBAL CSIC from Spain; National Institute of Science and Technology for Climate Change Phase 2; the National Coordination for Higher Education and Training (CAPES).https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/23335084hj2024Geography, Geoinformatics and MeteorologySDG-13:Climate actio

The need for an open corpus of software architecture descriptions

Software architectures are the conceptual tool to share information about key aspects of a software system and to enable reasoning about the principal, most fundamental, and often most difficult-to-change design decisions of the system. Studies of failed software systems give evidence that architecture drift, erosion or degradation is a prevalent problem in industrial practice. But a recent systematic literature review [9] indicates that research currently investigates compliance checking or inconsistency detection only. To advance research we need an open and grounded corpus of software architecture description – serving as a basis for more sophisticated studies beyond detection only. Such a corpus could enable (1) to evaluate new approaches, (2) to provide means for fixing degradation (when it occurs or a-posteriori), (3) to compare and benchmark approaches and, ultimately, (4) enable longitudinal studies in the field

Conference Report : REDD+ related forest monitoring remains a key issue: A report following the recent un climate conference in Doha

The issue of forest monitoring for REDD+ was a focus area at the recent UN climate conference in Doha, Qatar. Although the expected Decision of the COP on national-level forest monitoring systems and measurement, reporting and verification for REDD+ activities was not finalized, the elements in the draft decision that is available and the in-depth discussions evident from side events and processes show the level of technical work that is underway, indicate good convergence, and suggest that resolving the methodological issues need not be a barrier to political agreement.</p

"Cancer doesn't mean curtains": Benefit finding in patients with head and neck cancer in remission

There is an increasing awareness that there are often aspects of the experience of cancer that patients view as positive or beneficial despite substantial physical and psychological impacts. Individuals with head and neck cancer (HNC) are unique with respect to the possible facial disfigurement and functional limitations following disease and treatment. This qualitative study aimed to explore whether patients with HNC experience positive consequences posttreatment, and to investigate the nature of any benefit finding. Emerging master themes included a change in life priorities, greater closeness to family and friends, a greater awareness of self, for example, an increase in self-confidence and empowerment, and a greater awareness of faith and spirituality. Despite the adverse affects often associated with HNC, patients report some degree of positive growth following treatment

Evidence in architecture degradation and consistency checking research: preliminary results from a literature review

Theory suggests that software development may bene t from applying architecture consistency checking and hence, aca- demics have focused on this area. In such circumstances it is important to characterize the overall focus of the eld, in order to assess the actual impact of the research work carried out to date, identifying where researchers are placing their e ort and which sub-topics are being neglected. In doing so a map is provided for researchers allowing them focus on relevant research gaps and avoiding saturated sub-topics, to deliver results relevant for academia and industrial practice. The goal of this paper is to shed some light on the current state of research in software architecture degradation and consistency checking, particularly focusing on empirical evi- dence. Preliminary, yet signi cant results from an ongoing mapping study, as a precursor to a more detailed literature review, are presented and discussed. These results show that solution-proposals constitute a large part of the body of work. In addition, they show that case studies, with potentially limited external validity, are prevalent in terms of empirical design. We argue that the proportion of empirical studies needs to be expanded and that existing case studies should be complemented by experiments and surveys, assessing its impact in practice

Assessing the psychological predictors of benefit finding in patients with head and neck cancer

Background Some individuals are able to gain psychological benefits from illness and adversity, such as a greater sense of purpose and closer relationships, termed ‘benefit finding’ (BF). The main aim of this study was to explore the extent to which BF is reported in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). Secondary aims were to establish the relationships between BF, other patient-reported outcomes and predictive factors such as coping strategy and level of optimism. Methods This repeat measures study was conducted with 103 newly diagnosed patients with HNC. Self-completion questionnaires were used to assess BF pre-treatment and 6 months after treatment and pre-treatment coping, optimism, quality of life, anxiety and depression. Sixty-eight patients (66%) completed follow-ups. Results Moderate to high levels of BF were reported. Anxiety, depression and quality of life were not related to BF. Regression models of BF total score and three new factor analysed BF scales indicated that use of emotional support and active coping strategies were predictive of finding more positive consequences. Optimism, living with a partner and higher educational attainment were also found to have a protective effect. The amount of variance in BF explained by these five pre-treatment factors ranged from 32 to 46%. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that both dispositional and potentially modifiable factors, in particular optimism and coping strategies, were associated with patients identifying positive consequences of a diagnosis of HNC. To maximise patient's longer-term resilience and adaptation, components of BF, either directly or via coping strategies, could be targeted for intervention. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

FLINTS: A tool for architectural-level modeling of features in software systems

Reflexion Modeling has been proposed as a means of creating and refining a functional model of software systems at the architectural level. Such a model allows developers to maintain a consistent understanding of the relationships between different functionalities of their system as it evolves, and allows them to analyze the system at a functional-chunk level rather than at the traditional, structural levels more typically presented by IDEs. This paper describes a prototype tool built to enable this approach. The tool assists developers in moving to this functional perspective by supporting them as they first attempt to locate specific functionalities in the code. This support is based on design principles identified by observing experienced software developers in-vivo, as they performed this task manually. After the code associated with several such functionalities is located in the code-base, a graphical view allows the developer to assess the source code dependencies between these features and between these features and the rest of the system. This helps the developer understand the inter-functional interfaces, and the representation can be reviewed over time, as features are added and removed, to ensure on-going consistency between the architect’s perspective of the features in the system and the code-base

Restoration of tumor suppression in prostate cancer by targeting the E3 ligase E6AP

Restoration of tumor suppression is an attractive onco-therapeutic approach. It is particularly relevant when a tumor suppressor is excessively degraded by an overactive oncogenic E3 ligase. We previously discovered that the E6-associated protein (E6AP; as classified in the human papilloma virus context) is an E3 ligase that has an important role in the cellular stress response, and it directly targets the tumor-suppressor promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML) for proteasomal degradation. In this study, we have examined the role of the E6AP–PML axis in prostate cancer (PC). We show that knockdown (KD) of E6AP expression attenuates growth of PC cell lines in vitro. We validated this finding in vivo using cell line xenografts, patient-derived xenografts and mouse genetics. We found that KD of E6AP attenuates cancer cell growth by promoting cellular senescence in vivo, which correlates with restoration of tumor suppression by PML. In addition, we show that KD of E6AP sensitizes cells to radiation-induced death. Overall, our findings demonstrate a role for E6AP in the promotion of PC and support E6AP targeting as a novel approach for PC treatment, either alone or in combination with radiation