Impact of microvariability on classification and management of peatlands in Asia

Globally, wetlands occupy about 18.96 x 106 km2, of which 2% is made up of organic soils. In Asia, about 2.2 million km2 (~ 1.0%) of the land surface comprises peat or Histosols. The current global approach to agriculture places considerable emphasis on environmental quality, conservation of biodiversity and preservation of ecosystem while striving to achieve sustainable production in agroecosystems. In Asia, land use on the peatlands is low-input subsistence-based systems. In a few countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, rubber and oil-palm are cultivated on a plantation scale. Subsistence-based agricultural systems, understandably, would not be able to provide the level of input required for sustainable management of peat lands. The knowledge base for such systems is highly traditional in nature and is therefore vulnerable to the uncontrolled changes that occur in the evolution of the agro-ecosystem. Commercial-based agricultural systems appear to thrive in areas dominated by shallow peat. This system is technology-based, has a greater control over changes that may occur within the system but is perhaps still not in harmony with nature. Ignorance of the functions and value of such areas has lead to many forms of degradation. Therefore, sustainable development of the peat soils requires not only a holistic approach to the management but also dictates the need for a paradigm shift in resource characterization, research trends and land use policies.The paper elaborates on the paradigm shift in sustainable land management system and advocates a holistic approach wherein agronomic factors, environmental considerations as well as the much de-emphasized socioeconomic aspects, are all integrated into new research approaches. Research strategies needed to ensure sustainable agricultural development of organic soils include the urgent need for innovative measures to characterize the resource, evaluating and monitoring soil quality, assessing the potential of peat lands to release methane and other greenhouse gases upon drainage, and assessing the integrity of the ecosystem. Issues pertaining to productivity, assisting in the design of rational policies for development, promoting preservation of heritage, inculcating the ownership concept and developing better methods to gauge the economic viability of such projects are additional important factors that ensure sustainability. The most important factor differentiating peatlands from their mineral counterparts is microvariability; this, specifically in the context of small farms had not been addressed adequately and requires innovative approaches and technologies. Conventional soil surveys must be augmented with more innovative techniques as current methods suffer from various kinds of limitations

Lmo4 Establishes Rostral Motor Cortex Projection Neuron Subtype Diversity

The mammalian neocortex is parcellated into anatomically and functionally distinct areas. The establishment of area-specific neuronal diversity and circuit connectivity enables distinct neocortical regions to control diverse and specialized functional outputs, yet underlying molecular controls remain largely unknown. Here, we identify a central role for the transcriptional regulator Lim-only 4 (Lmo4) in establishing the diversity of neuronal subtypes within rostral mouse motor cortex, where projection neurons have particularly diverse and multi-projection connectivity compared with caudal motor cortex. In rostral motor cortex, we report that both subcerebral projection neurons (SCPN), which send projections away from the cerebrum, and callosal projection neurons (CPN), which send projections to contralateral cortex, express Lmo4, whereas more caudal SCPN and CPN do not. Lmo4-expressing SCPN and CPN populations are comprised of multiple hodologically distinct subtypes. SCPN in rostral layer Va project largely to brainstem, whereas SCPN in layer Vb project largely to spinal cord, and a subset of both rostral SCPN and CPN sends second ipsilateral caudal (backward) projections in addition to primary projections. Without Lmo4 function, the molecular identity of neurons in rostral motor cortex is disrupted and more homogenous, rostral layer Va SCPN aberrantly project to the spinal cord, and many dual-projection SCPN and CPN fail to send a second backward projection. These molecular and hodological disruptions result in greater overall homogeneity of motor cortex output. Together, these results identify Lmo4 as a central developmental control over the diversity of motor cortex projection neuron subpopulations, establishing their area-specific identity and specialized connectivity.Stem Cell and Regenerative Biolog

Anatomic and Molecular Development of Corticostriatal Projection Neurons in Mice

Corticostriatal projection neurons (CStrPN) project from the neocortex to ipsilateral and contralateral striata to control and coordinate motor programs and movement. They are clinically important as the predominant cortical population that degenerates in Huntington's disease and corticobasal ganglionic degeneration, and their injury contributes to multiple forms of cerebral palsy. Together with their well-studied functions in motor control, these clinical connections make them a functionally, behaviorally, and clinically important population of neocortical neurons. Little is known about their development. “Intratelencephalic” CStrPN $(CStrPN_i)$, projecting to the contralateral striatum, with their axons fully within the telencephalon (intratelencephalic), are a major population of CStrPN. $CStrPN_i$ are of particular interest developmentally because they share hodological and axon guidance characteristics of both callosal projection neurons (CPN) and corticofugal projection neurons (CFuPN); $CStrPN_i$ send axons contralaterally before descending into the contralateral striatum. The relationship of $CStrPN_i$ development to that of broader CPN and CFuPN populations remains unclear; evidence suggests that $CStrPN_i$ might be evolutionary “hybrids” between CFuPN and deep layer CPN—in a sense “chimeric” with both callosal and corticofugal features. Here, we investigated the development of $CStrPN_i$ in mice—their birth, maturation, projections, and expression of molecular developmental controls over projection neuron subtype identity.Stem Cell and Regenerative Biolog

Molecular logic of neocortical projection neuron specification, development and diversity

The sophisticated circuitry of the neocortex is assembled from a diverse repertoire of neuronal subtypes generated during development under precise molecular regulation. In recent years, several key controls over the specification and differentiation of neocortical projection neurons have been identified. This work provides substantial insight into the 'molecular logic' underlying cortical development and increasingly supports a model in which individual progenitor-stage and postmitotic regulators are embedded within highly interconnected networks that gate sequential developmental decisions. Here, we provide an integrative account of the molecular controls that direct the progressive development and delineation of subtype and area identity of neocortical projection neurons.Stem Cell and Regenerative Biolog

Robustness of Group Delay Representations for Noisy Speech Signals

This paper demonstrates the robustness of group delay based features to additive noise. First, we analytically show the robustness of group delay based represen- tations. The analysis makes use of the fact that, for minimum-phase signals, the group delay function can be represented in terms of the cepstral coefficients of the log-magnitude spectrum. Such a representation results in the speech spectrum dominating over the noise spectrum, both at low and high SNRs. Further, we ex- perimentally demonstrate the robustness of the representation on a voice activity detection (VAD) task, comparing a group delay based VAD algorithm with standard VAD methods as well as a magnitude-spectrum based method

Robustness of Phase based Features for Speaker Recognition

This paper demonstrates the robustness of group-delay based features for speech processing. An analysis of group delay functions is presented which show that these features retain formant structure even in noise. Furthermore, a speaker verification task performed on the NIST 2003 database show lesser error rates, when compared with the traditional MFCC features. We also mention about using feature diversity to dynamically choose the feature for every claimed speaker

Hospital admissions linked to SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents: cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained infections in England

Objective To describe hospital admissions associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents. Design Cohort study of 3.2 million first ascertained SARS-CoV-2 infections using electronic health care record data. Setting England, July 2020 to February 2022. Participants About 12 million children and adolescents (age <18 years) who were resident in England. Main outcome measures Ascertainment of a first SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admissions: due to SARS-CoV-2, with SARS-CoV-2 as a contributory factor, incidental to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and hospital acquired SARS-CoV-2. Results 3 226 535 children and adolescents had a recorded first SARS-CoV-2 infection during the observation period, and 29 230 (0.9%) infections involved a SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admission. The median length of stay was 2 (interquartile range 1-4) days) and 1710 of 29 230 (5.9%) SARS-CoV-2 associated admissions involved paediatric critical care. 70 deaths occurred in which covid-19 or paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome was listed as a cause, of which 55 (78.6%) were in participants with a SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admission. SARS-CoV-2 was the cause or a contributory factor in 21 000 of 29 230 (71.8%) participants who were admitted to hospital and only 380 (1.3%) participants acquired infection as an inpatient and 7855 (26.9%) participants were admitted with incidental SARS-CoV-2 infection. Boys, younger children (<5 years), and those from ethnic minority groups or areas of high deprivation were more likely to be admitted to hospital (all P<0.001). The covid-19 vaccination programme in England has identified certain conditions as representing a higher risk of admission to hospital with SARS-CoV-2: 11 085 (37.9%) of participants admitted to hospital had evidence of such a condition, and a further 4765 (16.3%) of participants admitted to hospital had a medical or developmental health condition not included in the vaccination programme’s list. Conclusions Most SARS-CoV-2 associated hospital admissions in children and adolescents in England were due to SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-CoV-2 was a contributory factor. These results should inform future public health initiatives and research