Geometric accuracy of LANDSAT-4 MSS image data

Analyses of the LANDSAT-4 MSS image data of North Georgia provided by the EDC in CCT-p formats reveal that errors of approximately + or - 30 m in the raw data can be reduced to about + or - 55 m based on rectification procedures involving the use of 20 to 30 well-distributed GCPs and 2nd or 3rd degree polynomial equations. Higher order polynomials do not appear to improve the rectification accuracy. A subscene area of 256 x 256 pixels was rectified with a 1st degree polynomial to yield an RMSE sub xy value of + or - 40 m, indicating that USGS 1:24,000 scale quadrangle-sized areas of LANDSAT-4 data can be fitted to a map base with relatively few control points and simple equations. The errors in the rectification process are caused by the spatial resolution of the MSS data, by errors in the maps and GCP digitizing process, and by displacements caused by terrain relief. Overall, due to the improved pointing and attitude control of the spacecraft, the geometric quality of the LANDSAT-4 MSS data appears much improved over that of LANDSATS -1, -2 and -3

Application of remote sensing to study nearshore circulation

The research to use remote sensing techniques for studying the continental shelf is reported. The studies reported include: (1) nearshore circulation in the vincinity of a natural tidal inlet; (2) identification of indicators of biological activity; (3) remote navigation system for tracking free drifting buoys; (4) experimental design of an estuaring tidal circulation; and (5) Skylab support work

On the Interpretation of Supernova Light Echo Profiles and Spectra

The light echo systems of historical supernovae in the Milky Way and local group galaxies provide an unprecedented opportunity to reveal the effects of asymmetry on observables, particularly optical spectra. Scattering dust at different locations on the light echo ellipsoid witnesses the supernova from different perspectives and the light consequently scattered towards Earth preserves the shape of line profile variations introduced by asymmetries in the supernova photosphere. However, the interpretation of supernova light echo spectra to date has not involved a detailed consideration of the effects of outburst duration and geometrical scattering modifications due to finite scattering dust filament dimension, inclination, and image point-spread function and spectrograph slit width. In this paper, we explore the implications of these factors and present a framework for future resolved supernova light echo spectra interpretation, and test it against Cas A and SN 1987A light echo spectra. We conclude that the full modeling of the dimensions and orientation of the scattering dust using the observed light echoes at two or more epochs is critical for the correct interpretation of light echo spectra. Indeed, without doing so one might falsely conclude that differences exist when none are actually present.Comment: 18 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Skills Included in Self-Management Interventions to Help People with Chronic Kidney Disease

Slowing the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major goal of medical therapy and requires significant and complex self-management behaviors from patients. Similar to other chronic conditions, patients must have the knowledge, confidence, and skills to self-manage the disease in daily living. The core self-management skills of problem-solving, decision making, resource utilization, patient-provider partnerships, action planning, and self-tailoring will help patient perform key behaviors associated with slowed progression. These key behaviors include the avoidance of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), diet modifications, glycemic control, regular exercise, systolic blood pressure control, tobacco avoidance, and adherence to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) medications. The purpose of this literature review was to review the components of tested CKD self-management interventions to identify the self-management skills that were included in the published studies and how the interventions were delivered. A search for literature was performed using multiple databases. Articles were selected for review if they were written in English, included adults 18 years of age who had Stage 1-4 CKD, and tested a self-management intervention using a quasiexperimental or experimental design. A total of eight research articles met the inclusion criteria. Action planning, problem-solving and enhancing patient-provider partnerships were included in some interventions; there was no evidence of decision-making, resource utilization, or self-tailoring. All of the interventions were delivered using face-to-face educational programs and none used information technology. Data from this review provides important information for designing future interventions that will improve CKD self-management programs. In addition, findings suggest additional methods are needed when delivering interventions so programs are readily available to underserved areas

The Cepheids of NGC1866: A Precise Benchmark for the Extragalactic Distance Scale and Stellar Evolution from Modern UBVI Photometry

We present the analysis of multiband time-series data for a sample of 24 Cepheids in the field of the Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC1866. Very accurate BVI VLT photometry is combined with archival UBVI data, covering a large temporal window, to obtain precise mean magnitudes and periods with typical errors of 1-2% and of 1 ppm, respectively. These results represent the first accurate and homogeneous dataset for a substantial sample of Cepheid variables belonging to a cluster and hence sharing common distance, age and original chemical composition. Comparisons of the resulting multiband Period-Luminosity and Wesenheit relations to both empirical and theoretical results for the Large Magellanic Cloud are presented and discussed to derive the distance of the cluster and to constrain the mass-luminosity relation of the Cepheids. The adopted theoretical scenario is also tested by comparison with independent calibrations of the Cepheid Wesenheit zero point based on trigonometric parallaxes and Baade-Wesselink techniques. Our analysis suggests that a mild overshooting and/or a moderate mass loss can affect intermediate-mass stellar evolution in this cluster and gives a distance modulus of 18.50 +- 0.01 mag. The obtained V,I color-magnitude diagram is also analysed and compared with both synthetic models and theoretical isochrones for a range of ages and metallicities and for different efficiencies of core overshooting. As a result, we find that the age of NGC1866 is about 140 Myr, assuming Z = 0.008 and the mild efficiency of overshooting suggested by the comparison with the pulsation models.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted in MNRAS (2016 January 14

Individuality, stability, and variability of the plaque microbiome

© The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 7 (2016): 564, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.00564.Dental plaque is a bacterial biofilm composed of a characteristic set of organisms. Relatively little information from cultivation-independent, high-throughput analyses has been published on the temporal dynamics of the dental plaque microbiome. We used Minimum Entropy Decomposition, an information theory-based approach similar to oligotyping that provides single-nucleotide resolution, to analyze a previously published time series data set and investigate the dynamics of the plaque microbiome at various analytic and taxonomic levels. At both the genus and 97% Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) levels of resolution, the range of variation within each individual overlapped that of other individuals in the data set. When analyzed at the oligotype level, however, the overlap largely disappeared, showing that single-nucleotide resolution enables differentiation of individuals from one another without ambiguity. The overwhelming majority of the plaque community in all samples was made up of bacteria from a moderate number of plaque-typical genera, indicating that the overall community framework is shared among individuals. Each of these genera fluctuated in abundance around a stable mean that varied between individuals, with some genera having higher inter-individual variability than others. Thus, at the genus level, differences between individuals lay not in the identity of the major genera but in consistently differing proportions of these genera from mouth to mouth. However, at the oligotype level, we detected oligotype “fingerprints,” a highly individual-specific set of persistently abundant oligotypes fluctuating around a stable mean over time. For example, within the genus Corynebacterium, more than a dozen oligotypes were detectable in each individual, of which a different subset reached high abundance in any given person. This pattern suggests that each mouth contains a subtly different community of organisms. We also compared the Chinese plaque community characterized here to previously characterized Western plaque communities, as represented by analyses of data emerging from the Human Microbiome Project, and found no major differences between Chinese and Western supragingival plaque. In conclusion, we found the plaque microbiome to be highly individualized at the oligotype level and characterized by stability of community membership, with variability in the relative abundance of community members between individuals and over time.Our work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Grant DE022586 (to GGB). Additional support was provided by Harvard University's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology graduate program (to DRU)