Photogrammetric recording, modeling, and visualization of the Nasca lines at Palpa, Peru: an overview

As part of a long-term project to investigate the cultural history of the Nasca region in southern Peru, the famous Nasca lines, or geoglyphs, have been documented since 1997 in a joint effort by archaeologists and geomatic engineers. The project aims on the one hand at a new interpretation of the geoglyphs based on solid field data. On the other hand, it is thought of as a contribution to the preservation of the geoglyphs. Prior to the start of the project, the geoglyphs had never been adequately recorded. In a new approach that combined aerial photogrammetry with archaeological fieldwork, we thoroughly documented more than 1 500 geoglyphs in the vicinity of Palpa. While different aspects of this work have been described in previous reports, this paper offers an overview of the technical procedures from data acquisition to processing, modeling, and visualization

COMPARISON OF SPHERICAL CUBE MAP PROJECTIONS USED IN PLANET-SIZED TERRAIN RENDERING

A wide variety of projections from a planet surface to a two-dimensional map are known, and the correct choice of a particular projection for a given application area depends on many factors. In the computer graphics domain, in particular in the field of planet rendering systems, the importance of that choice has been neglected so far, and inadequate criteria have been used to select a projection. In this paper, we derive evaluation criteria, based on texture distortion, suitable for this application domain, and apply them to a comprehensive list of spherical cube map projections to demonstrate their properties

Next generation sequencing sheds light on the natural history of hepatitis C infection in patients that fail treatment

Background and rationale of the study: High rates of sexually-transmitted infection and reinfection with hepatitis C (HCV) have recently been reported in HIV-infected men who have sex with men and reinfection has also been described in monoinfected injecting drug users. The diagnosis of reinfection has traditionally been based on direct Sanger sequencing of samples pre and post-treatment, but not on more sensitive deep sequencing techniques. We studied viral quasispecies dynamics in patients who failed standard of care therapy in a high-risk HIV-infected cohort of patients with early HCV infection to determine whether treatment failure was associated with reinfection or recrudescence of pre-existing infection. Paired sequences (pre- and post- treatment) were analysed. The HCV E2 hypervariable region-1 was amplified using nested RT-PCR with indexed genotype-specific primers and the same products were sequenced using both Sanger and 454 pyrosequencing approaches. Results: Of 99 HIV-infected patients with acute HCV treated with 24-48 weeks of pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin, 15 failed to achieve a sustained virological response (6 relapsed, 6 had a null response and 3 had a partial response). Using direct sequencing, 10/15 patients (66%) had evidence of a previously undetected strain post-treatment; in many studies, this is interpreted as reinfection. However, pyrosequencing revealed that 15/15 (100%) of patients had evidence of persisting infection. 6/15 (40%) patients had evidence of a previously undetected variant present in the post-treatment sample in addition to a variant that was detected at baseline. This could represent superinfection or a limitation of the sensitivity of pyrosequencing. Conclusion: In this high-risk group, the emergence of new viral strains following treatment failure is most commonly associated with emerging dominance of pre-existing minority variants rather than re-infection. Superinfection may occur in this cohort but reinfection is over-estimated by Sanger sequencing. (Hepatology 2014;

Understanding complexity: the case-study of al-Ḥīra, Iraq

The large-scale magnetometer prospection conducted in 2021 south of the al-Najaf International Airport, Iraq, reveals the complex settlement structure of the late Antique and early Islamic site of al-Ḥīra. The manual archaeo-geophysical interpretation resulted in 16 classes and the three most relevant archaeological classes will serve as a baseline for a (semi-) automated classification workflow

Familial twinning and fertility in Dutch mothers of twins.

We studied twinning and fertility indices in mothers with spontaneous monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins and in mothers who conceived their twins after the use of assisted reproduction techniques (ART). Participants in this study consisted of 8,222 and 5,505 women with spontaneous DZ and MZ offspring and 4,164 and 250 women with ART DZ and MZ twin pairs, respectively. Women were compared with respect to the number of sibs and offspring, the presence of other relatives with twins and the time it took to conceive the twins. We also compared familial twinning between a younger and an older age group. Women with spontaneous DZ twins more often reported female relatives with twins than those with spontaneous MZ twins. The proportion of DZ versus MZ twin offspring in relatives was also larger in women with spontaneous DZ offspring than in women with MZ offspring. The first group of women reported a shorter time to conceive. Women with ART twins had fewer sibs and offspring and less often reported relatives with twins. We did not observe that DZ twinning was more familial in women who had their twins before age 36 years compared to older women. Familial DZ twinning is clearly present in mothers of spontaneous DZ twins. The mechanisms underlying spontaneous and non-spontaneous DZ twinning are different and fertility treatment should be taken into account in any study of twinning. Twinning is not more familial in women who have their twins at a younger age

Global ecological predictors of the soil priming effect.

Identifying the global drivers of soil priming is essential to understanding C cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We conducted a survey of soils across 86 globally-distributed locations, spanning a wide range of climates, biotic communities, and soil conditions, and evaluated the apparent soil priming effect using 13C-glucose labeling. Here we show that the magnitude of the positive apparent priming effect (increase in CO2 release through accelerated microbial biomass turnover) was negatively associated with SOC content and microbial respiration rates. Our statistical modeling suggests that apparent priming effects tend to be negative in more mesic sites associated with higher SOC contents. In contrast, a single-input of labile C causes positive apparent priming effects in more arid locations with low SOC contents. Our results provide solid evidence that SOC content plays a critical role in regulating apparent priming effects, with important implications for the improvement of C cycling models under global change scenarios

Plasma C-Peptide and Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes in the General Population

C-peptide measurement may represent a better index of pancreatic β-cell function compared to insulin. While insulin is mainly cleared by liver, C-peptide is mainly metabolized by kidneys. The aim of our study was to evaluate the association between baseline plasma C-peptide level and the development of type 2 diabetes independent of glucose and insulin levels and to examine potential effect-modification by variables related to kidney function. We included 5176 subjects of the Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-Stage Disease study without type 2 diabetes at baseline. C-peptide was measured in plasma with an electrochemiluminescent immunoassay. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the association between C-peptide level and type 2 diabetes development. Median C-peptide was 722 (566-935) pmol/L. During a median follow-up of 7.2 (6.0-7.7) years, 289 individuals developed type 2 diabetes. In multivariable-adjusted Cox regression models, we observed a significant positive association of C-peptide with the risk of type 2 diabetes independent of glucose and insulin levels (hazard ratio (HR): 2.35; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.49-3.70). Moreover, we found significant effect modification by hypertension and albuminuria (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001 for interaction, respectively), with a stronger association in normotensive and normo-albuminuric subjects and absence of an association in subjects with hypertension or albuminuria. In this population-based cohort, elevated C-peptide levels are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes independent of glucose, insulin levels, and clinical risk factors. Elevated C-peptide level was not independently associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in individuals with hypertension or albuminuria

Generation of a whole-brain hemodynamic response function and sex-specific differences in cerebral processing of mechano-sensation in mice detected by BOLD fMRI

BOLD fMRI has become a prevalent method to study cerebral sensory processing in rodent disease models, including pain and mechanical hypersensitivity. fMRI data analysis is frequently combined with a general-linear-model (GLM) -based analysis, which uses the convolution of a hemodynamic response function (HRF) with the stimulus paradigm. However, several studies indicated that the HRF differs across species, sexes, brain structures, and experimental factors, including stimulation modalities or anesthesia, and hence might strongly affect the outcome of BOLD analyzes. While considerable work has been done in humans and rats to understand the HRF, much less is known in mice. As a prerequisite to investigate mechano-sensory processing and BOLD fMRI data in male and female mice, we (1) designed a rotating stimulator that allows application of two different mechanical modalities, including innocuous von Frey and noxious pinprick stimuli and (2) determined and statistically compared HRFs across 30 brain structures and experimental conditions, including sex and, stimulus modalities. We found that mechanical stimulation lead to brain-wide BOLD signal changes thereby allowing extraction of HRFs from multiple brain structures. However, we did not find differences in HRFs across all brain structures and experimental conditions. Hence, we computed a whole-brain mouse HRF, which is based on 88 functional scans from 30 mice. A comparison of this mouse-specific HRF with our previously reported rat-derived HRF showed significantly slower kinetics in mice. Finally, we detected pronounced differences in cerebral BOLD activation between male and female mice with mechanical stimulation, thereby exposing divergent processing of noxious and innocuous stimuli in both sexes