ACCURACY EVALUATION OF VARIOUS SATELLITE IMAGERY PRODUCTS FOR LARGE SCALE TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING

DEM and ortho-imageries are building blocks for topographic mapping and satellite imageries are prime source of data for inaccessible terrain. When the required mapping scale is of the order 10k or higher, the accuracy needed is also of higher order. It becomes imperative to evaluate the accuracy of available high resolution DEMs and corresponding imageries to provide quality products for mapping. The present study is encouraged by the fact that not every place of our earth is accessible, so an assessment of satellite data products is required for precise mapping. Here, the accuracy assessment has been carried out in terms of RMSE, SD, CE90 and LE90 of various products viz. Carosat-1, Cartosat-2E, Worldview-2 (WV), Vricon, Pleiades, ALOS-World-3D (AW3D) ASTER, SRTM with Yahoo image. GCPs acquired by DGPS field survey were used to evaluate the products. The results have demonstrated that Vricon 0.5 m ortho-image provides the best RMSE (3.42) and CE90 (4.65); however, WV and Vricon DEM turns out to be best with RMSE of 2.20 m and 2.90 m respectively. Both products are suitable for large scale topographic mapping. The data can be used for inaccessible terrain where GCPs are not available. However, Cartosat-1 and Cartosat-2E can be used where good GCPs are available. The outcome of study can be used for planning of data suitability for scale variant mapping and inaccessible terrain mapping

Primary mediastinal choriocarcinoma

Primary mediastinal choriocarcinoma is a rare entity and is peculiar only to man. Although rigid criteria such as serial biopsies of the gonads are essential to rule out the possibility of such mediastinal tumor as a metastatic lesion, a review of the literature shows that anterior medlastinum is rarely involved by the metastasis from gonadal tumors. The clinical diagnosis of such a tumor can be made by the presence of the triad of chest pain, cough and gynecomastia in a man in the third decade. The prognosis of such a lesion is uniformly hopeless irrespective of the mode of treatment. A case of primary medlastinal choriocarcinoma in a 22-year-old man has been described. This case brings the total number of cases to 16

INFLUENCE OF FERTILIZER AND WEED MANAGEMENT ON YIELD AND NUTRIENT UPTAKE IN ONION (Allium cepa L.)

A field experiment was conducted to find out appropriate nutrient and weed management practices for yield maximization and nutrient uptake of onion during rabi 2018-19 at the experimental plot of Regional Research and Technology Transfer Station, Keonjhar of Odisha. The experiment was laid out in Split plot technique with fifteen treatments viz., Main plot belongs to Nutrient management (N) with treatments i.e. N1- Soil test based fertilizer recommendation (STBFR), N2 - 50% STBFR + FYM (Based on N requirement), N3-STBFR + Sulphur), while Subplots belongs to weed management (W) with treatments viz., W1- Pendimethalin (PE) @ 0.8 Lha-1, W2- Oxyflurofen (PE) @ 0.2 Lha-1, W3- Pendimethalin (PE) @ 0.8 Lha-1+ one hand weeding at 25 days after transplanting(DAT), W4-Oxyflurofen (PE) @ 0.2 Lha-1+ one hand weeding at 25 days after transplanting(DAT), W5- one hand weeding at 25 days after transplanting (DAT). The highest onion bulb yield of 16.72 t ha-1 was obtained under the treatment applied with Pendimethalin (PE) @ 0.8 Lha-1 along with one hand weeding at 25 DAT, followed by Oxyfluorfen 0.2Lha-1pre-emergence + 1 hand weeding at 25 DAT (15. 88 t ha-1). The treatment combination of N2W3 (96.83, 16.80, 57.73 kg ha-1) was recorded the highest N, P, and K uptake by crops respectively while N3W3 (51.39 kg ha-1) was recorded as the highest S uptake by a crop over the rest of the treatments

Digital technologies, legal design and the future of the legal profession

Legal Technology – or “Legal Tech” – is disrupting the traditional operations and self-understanding of the legal profession. This chapter introduces the central claim of this book, namely that these developments are having and will continue to have a disruptive effect on the work of lawyers and that adapting to this new operating environment is crucial for legal professionals remaining relevant in an increasingly technology-driven world. This introductory chapter outlines some of the main features of this on-going transformation process, introduces some of the pressures it is creating for lawyers, and provides short summaries of the chapters that comprise this collection.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Buckling and vibration analysis of laminated composite plate/shell structures via a smoothed quadrilateral flat shell element with in-plane rotations

This paper presents buckling and free vibration analysis of composite plate/shell structures of various shapes, modulus ratios, span-to-thickness ratios, boundary conditions and lay-up sequences via a novel smoothed quadrilateral flat element. The element is developed by incorporating a strain smoothing technique into a flat shell approach. As a result, the evaluation of membrane, bending and geometric stiffness matrices are based on integration along the boundary of smoothing elements, which leads to accurate numerical solutions even with badly-shaped elements. Numerical examples and comparison with other existing solutions show that the present element is efficient, accurate and free of locking

A combinatorial TIR1/AFB–Aux/IAA co-receptor system for differential sensing of auxin

The plant hormone auxin regulates virtually every aspect of plant growth and development. Auxin acts by binding the F-box protein transport inhibitor response 1 (TIR1) and promotes the degradation of the AUXIN/INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID (Aux/IAA) transcriptional repressors. Here we show that efficient auxin binding requires assembly of an auxin co-receptor complex consisting of TIR1 and an Aux/IAA protein. Heterologous experiments in yeast and quantitative IAA binding assays using purified proteins showed that different combinations of TIR1 and Aux/IAA proteins form co-receptor complexes with a wide range of auxin-binding affinities. Auxin affinity seems to be largely determined by the Aux/IAA. As there are 6 TIR1/AUXIN SIGNALING F-BOX proteins (AFBs) and 29 Aux/IAA proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana, combinatorial interactions may result in many co-receptors with distinct auxin-sensing properties. We also demonstrate that the AFB5–Aux/IAA co-receptor selectively binds the auxinic herbicide picloram. This co-receptor system broadens the effective concentration range of the hormone and may contribute to the complexity of auxin response

Single-stranded DNA binding protein from human malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum is encoded in the nucleus and targeted to the apicoplast

Apicoplast, an essential organelle of human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum contains a ∼35 kb circular genome and is a possible target for therapy. Proteins required for the replication and maintenance of the apicoplast DNA are not clearly known. Here we report the presence of single–stranded DNA binding protein (SSB) in P falciparum. PfSSB is targeted to the apicoplast and it binds to apicoplast DNA. A strong ssDNA binding activity specific to SSB was also detected in P. falciparum lysate. Both the recombinant and endogenous proteins form tetramers and the homology modelling shows the presence of an oligosaccharide/oligonucleotide-binding fold responsible for ssDNA binding. Additionally, we used SSB as a tool to track the mechanism of delayed death phenomena shown by apicoplast targeted drugs ciprofloxacin and tetracycline. We find that the transport of PfSSB is severely affected during the second life cycle following drug treatment. Moreover, the translation of PfSSB protein and not the transcription of PfSSB seem to be down-regulated specifically during second life cycle although there is no considerable change in protein expression profile between drug-treated and untreated parasites. These results suggest dual control of translocation and translation of apicoplast targeted proteins behind the delayed death phenomena

Candida albicans Induces Selective Development of Macrophages and Monocyte Derived Dendritic Cells by a TLR2 Dependent Signalling

As TLRs are expressed by haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), these receptors may play a role in haematopoiesis in response to pathogens during infection. We have previously demonstrated that in in vitro defined conditions inactivated yeasts and hyphae of Candida albicans induce HSPCs proliferation and differentiation towards the myeloid lineage by a TLR2/MyD88 dependent pathway. In this work, we showed that C. albicans invasive infection with a low virulence strain results in a rapid expansion of HSPCs (identified as LKS cells: Lin− c-Kit+ Sca-1+ IL-7Rα−), that reach the maximum at day 3 post-infection. This in vivo expansion of LKS cells in TLR2−/− mice was delayed until day 7 post- infection. Candidiasis was, as expected, accompanied by an increase in granulopoiesis and decreased lymphopoiesis in the bone marrow. These changes were more pronounced in TLR2−/− mice correlating with their higher fungal burden. Accordingly, emigration of Ly6Chigh monocytes and neutrophils to spleen was increased in TLR2−/− mice, although the increase in macrophages and inflammatory macrophages was completely dependent on TLR2. Similarly, we detected for the first time, in the spleen of C. albicans infected control mice, a newly generated population of dendritic cells that have the phenotype of monocyte derived dendritic cells (moDCs) that were not generated in TLR2−/− infected mice. In addition, C. albicans signalling through TLR2/MyD88 and Dectin-1 promotes in vitro the differentiation of Lin− cells towards moDCs that secrete TNF-α and are able to kill the microorganism. Therefore, our results indicate that during infection C. albicans can directly stimulate progenitor cells through TLR2 and Dectin-1 to generate newly formed inflammatory macrophages and moDCs that may fulfill an essential role in defense mechanisms against the pathogen

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) : Investigating care practices pointed out to disparities in diagnosis and treatment across European Union

ME/CFS is a chronic, complex, multisystem disease that often limits the health and functioning of the affected patients. Diagnosing patients with ME/CFS is a challenge, and many different case definitions exist and are used in clinical practice and research. Even after diagnosis, medical treatment is very challenging. Symptom relief and coping may affect how patients live with their disease and their quality of life. There is no consensus on which diagnostic criteria should be used and which treatment strategies can be recommended for patients. The purpose of the current project was to map the landscape of the Euromene countries in respect of national guidelines and recommendations for case definition, diagnosis and clinical approaches for ME/CFS patients. A 23 items questionnaire was sent out by email to the members of Euromene. The form contained questions on existing guidelines for case definitions, treatment/management of the disease, tests and questionnaires applied, and the prioritization of information for data sampling in research. We obtained information from 17 countries. Five countries reported having national guidelines for diagnosis, and five countries reported having guidelines for clinical approaches. For diagnostic purposes, the Fukuda criteria were most often recommended, and also the Canadian Consensus criteria, the International Consensus Criteria and the Oxford criteria were used. A mix of diagnostic criteria was applied within those countries having no guidelines. Many different questionnaires and tests were used for symptom registration and diagnostic investigation. For symptom relief, pain and anti-depressive medication were most often recommended. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Graded Exercise treatment were often recommended as disease management and rehabilitative/palliative strategies. The lack of consistency in recommendations across European countries urges the development of regulations, guidance and standards. The results of this study will contribute to the harmonization of diagnostic criteria and treatment for ME/CFS in Europe