Dual link image coding for earth observation satellites

The conventional strategy to download images captured by satellites is to compress the data on board and then transmit them via the downlink. It often happens that the capacity of the downlink is too small to accommodate all the acquired data, so the images are trimmed and/or transmitted through lossy regimes. This paper introduces a coding system that increases the amount and quality of the downloaded imaging data. The main insight of this paper is to use both the uplink and the downlink to code the images. The uplink is employed to send reference information to the satellite so that the onboard coding system can achieve higher efficiency. This reference information is computed on the ground, possibly employing extensive data and computational resources. The proposed system is called dual link image coding. As it is devised in this paper, it is suitable for Earth observation satellites with polar orbits. Experimental results obtained for data sets acquired by the Landsat 8 satellite indicate significant coding gains with respect to conventional methods

Estimating tomato production losses due to plant viruses, a look at the past and new challenges

This review analyzes the available technical and scientific reports addressing tomato crop losses and discusses the ponderable characteristics for estimating losses caused by Tomato Infecting-Viruses. The tomato around the world represents an important economic aspect, it has positioned as a crop that contributes to the gross domestic product and is essential to achieve food security in some regions. Viral diseases are one of the main causes of economic losses and tomato production, due to the easy dissemination of viral particles, difficult detection, and the few options to combat virus diseases. Tomato Infecting-Viruses such as ToBRFV, TLYCV, TSWV, and TMV are some of the most important viruses due to their ability to cause losses. Abiotic factors must be considered to estimate losses with greater precision and biotic factors, restricted mainly to insects, have an important role in the virus dispersion and adaptation to new niches not studied yet. Viral infections in tomato crops can reach 100% and reported losses are between 2 and 10%. There are no recent official statistics on economic losses due to tomato viruses, the main limitation is to extrapolate and accurately predict today's losses with data from the past decade. The main challenges for estimating the economic impact of viral diseases in tomato crops lie in the omission by growers and authorities on the presence of viral symptoms and the product value in the market. Considering the absolute value of tomato cultivation economic losses by virus diseases should be around 2 to 5% annually.This review analyzes the available technical and scientific reports addressing tomato crop losses and discusses the ponderable characteristics for estimating losses caused by Tomato Infecting-Viruses. The tomato around the world represents an important economic aspect, it has positioned as a crop that contributes to the gross domestic product and is essential to achieve food security in some regions. Viral diseases are one of the main causes of economic losses and tomato production, due to the easy dissemination of viral particles, difficult detection, and the few options to combat virus diseases. Tomato Infecting-Viruses such as ToBRFV, TLYCV, TSWV, and TMV are some of the most important viruses due to their ability to cause losses. Abiotic factors must be considered to estimate losses with greater precision and biotic factors, restricted mainly to insects, have an important role in the virus dispersion and adaptation to new niches not studied yet. Viral infections in tomato crops can reach 100% and reported losses are between 2 and 10%. There are no recent official statistics on economic losses due to tomato viruses, the main limitation is to extrapolate and accurately predict today's losses with data from the past decade. The main challenges for estimating the economic impact of viral diseases in tomato crops lie in the omission by growers and authorities on the presence of viral symptoms and the product value in the market. Considering the absolute value of tomato cultivation economic losses by virus diseases should be around 2 to 5% annually

Comparative study of two laparoscopic instrument tracker designs for motion analysis and image-guided surgery: a technical evaluation

Laparoscopic instrument tracking systems are a key element in image-guided interventions, which requires high accuracy to be used in a real surgical scenario. In addition, these systems are a suitable option for objective assessment of laparoscopic technical skills based on instrument motion analysis. This study presents a new approach that improves the accuracy of a previously presented system, which applies an optical pose tracking system to laparoscopic practice. A design enhancement of the artificial markers placed on the laparoscopic instrument as well as an improvement of the calibration process are presented as a means to achieve more accurate results. A technical evaluation has been performed in order to compare the accuracy between the previous design and the new approach. Results show a remarkable improvement in the fluctuation error throughout the measurement platform. Moreover, the accumulated distance error and the inclination error have been improved. The tilt range covered by the system is the same for both approaches, from 90º to 7.5º. The relative position error is better for the new approach mainly at close distances to the camera syste

Technical evaluation of a third generation optical pose tracker for motion analysis and image-guided surgery

Laparoscopic instrument tracking systems are an essential component in image-guided interventions and offer new possibilities to improve and automate objective assessment methods of surgical skills. In this study we present our system design to apply a third generation optical pose tracker (Micron- Tracker®) to laparoscopic practice. A technical evaluation of this design is performed in order to analyze its accuracy in computing the laparoscopic instrument tip position. Results show a stable fluctuation error over the entire analyzed workspace. The relative position errors are 1.776±1.675 mm, 1.817±1.762 mm, 1.854±1.740 mm, 2.455±2.164 mm, 2.545±2.496 mm, 2.764±2.342 mm, 2.512±2.493 mm for distances of 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, and 350 mm, respectively. The accumulated distance error increases with the measured distance. The instrument inclination covered by the system is high, from 90 to 7.5 degrees. The system reports a low positional accuracy for the instrument tip

The safety and efficacy of stem cells for the treatment of severe community-acquired bacterial pneumonia: A randomized clinical trial

Community-acquired bacterial pneumonia; Intensive care unit; Mesenchymal stem cellsNeumonía bacteriana adquirida en la comunidad; Unidad de cuidados intensivos; Células madre mesenquimalesPneumònia bacteriana adquirida a la comunitat; Unitat de cures intensives; Cèl·lules mare mesenquimalPurpose: Evaluate the safety profile of expanded allogeneic adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell (eASC) for the treatment of severe community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP). Materials and methods: Randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 1b/2a trial. Patients with severe CABP were enrolled to receive intravenous infusions of Cx611 or placebo. The primary objective was safety including hypersensitivity reactions, thromboembolic events, and immunological responses to Cx611. The secondary endpoints included the clinical cure rate, ventilation-free days, and overall survival (Day 90). Results: Eighty-three patients were randomized and received infusions (Cx611: n = 42]; placebo: n = 41]. The mean age was similar (Cx611: 61.1 [11.2] years; placebo: 63.4 [10.4] years). The number of AEs and treatment-emergent AEs were similar (243; 184 and 2; 1) in Cx611 and placebo respectively. Hypersensitivity reactions or thromboembolic events were similar (Cx611: n = 9; placebo: n = 12). Each study arm had similar anti-HLA antibody/DSA levels at Day 90. The clinical cure rate (Cx611: 86.7%; placebo: 93.8%), mean number of ventilator-free days (Cx611: 12.2 [10.29] days; placebo: 15.4 [10.75] days), and overall survival (Cx611: 71.5%; placebo: 77.0%) did not differ between study arms. Conclusion: Cx611 was well tolerated in severe CABP. These data provide insights for future stem cell clinical study designs, endpoints and sample size calculation.This study was supported by a grant from European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (agreement number 681031); funding from this grant covered approximately one-third of the total estimated costs of the SEPCELL trial. The study sponsor is TiGenix SAU (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceuticals) who funded approximately two-thirds of the total estimated trial costs. The funding from TiGenix SAU/Takeda Pharmaceuticals covered costs associated with (but not limited to) appointing the contract research organization, the manufacturing and shipping of Cx611, rental and shipping of cryofreezers for storage of Cx611 at study sites, internal personnel costs for all departments involved in the SEPCELL trial, regulatory submissions, and interactions

Propuesta de un plan de mejoramiento del Clima Organizacional en el Hotel Campestre Moncada SAS de Barbosa Santander.

Conocer el desarrollo del clima organizacional en una empresa prestadora de servicios de hotelería y turismo, da la oportunidad de saber y entender acerca de las cualidades, características, avance y progreso de los empleados durante la ejecución de sus actividades en sus lugares de trabajo, conocer la manera como se desenvuelven y desarrollan, para descubrir sus logros y satisfacciones personales adquiridos con el tiempo de permanencia en la empresa. Por medio de un arduo estudio tanto de la temática propuesta, como de las diferentes situaciones internas vividas y dando la oportunidad a los involucrados de manifestar sus opiniones mediante una encuesta con la cual se llega a demostrar, si en la organización se tiene un buen clima organizacional; ya que de lo contrario se llegan a producir una serie de inconvenientes tanto para la empresa como para los trabajadores. Al proponer un Plan de mejoramiento, luego de conocer el clima en la organización, permite que se pueda llegar a mejorar o dar solución a las diferentes situaciones o inconvenientes, con el fin de lograr un rendimiento eficaz y cumplir con los objetivos de la organizaciónKnowing the development of the organizational climate in a company that provides hotel and tourism services, gives the opportunity to know and understand about the qualities, characteristics, advancement and progress of employees during the execution of their activities in their workplaces, to know the way they develop and develop, to discover their achievements and personal satisfactions acquired with the time spent in the company. Through an arduous study of both the proposed theme, as well as the different internal situations experienced and giving the opportunity to those involved to express their opinions through a survey with which it is possible to demonstrate, if the organization has a good climate organizational; otherwise, a series of inconveniences will be produced both for the company and for the workers. By proposing an Improvement Plan, after knowing the climate in the organization, it allows to improve or solve the different situations or inconveniences, in order to achieve effective performance and meet the objectives of the organization

Dissecting the role of TP53 alterations in del(11q) chronic lymphocytic leukemia

© 2021 The Authors.[Background]: Several genetic alterations have been identified as driver events in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) pathogenesis and oncogenic evolution. Concurrent driver alterations usually coexist within the same tumoral clone, but how the cooperation of multiple genomic abnormalities contributes to disease progression remains poorly understood. Specifically, the biological and clinical consequences of concurrent high-risk alterations such as del(11q)/ATM-mutations and del(17p)/TP53-mutations have not been established.[Methods]: We integrated next-generation sequencing (NGS) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 techniques to characterize the in vitro and in vivo effects of concurrent monoallelic or biallelic ATM and/or TP53 alterations in CLL prognosis, clonal evolution, and therapy response.[Results]: Targeted sequencing analysis of the co-occurrence of high-risk alterations in 271 CLLs revealed that biallelic inactivation of both ATM and TP53 was mutually exclusive, whereas monoallelic del(11q) and TP53 alterations significantly co-occurred in a subset of CLL patients with a highly adverse clinical outcome. We determined the biological effects of combined del(11q), ATM and/or TP53 mutations in CRISPR/Cas9-edited CLL cell lines. Our results showed that the combination of monoallelic del(11q) and TP53 mutations in CLL cells led to a clonal advantage in vitro and in in vivo clonal competition experiments, whereas CLL cells harboring biallelic ATM and TP53 loss failed to compete in in vivo xenotransplants. Furthermore, we demonstrated that CLL cell lines harboring del(11q) and TP53 mutations show only partial responses to B cell receptor signaling inhibitors, but may potentially benefit from ATR inhibition.[Conclusions]: Our work highlights that combined monoallelic del(11q) and TP53 alterations coordinately contribute to clonal advantage and shorter overall survival in CLL.Spanish Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias, Grant/Award Numbers: PI15/01471, PI18/01500); Fundación Memoria Don Samuel Solórzano Barruso, Grant/Award Number: RD12/0036/006

Estudio por espectroscopia DRIFTS de la oxidación de Co sobre el sistema Au/Mn-Ce : Análisis del rol del soporte

Una serie de sólidos Mn-Ce en relaciones atómicas 0:100, 50:50 y 100:0 fueronpreparados a partir de la precipitación alcalina con Na(OH) a pH=11. El estudio por DRXmuestra la formación de distintas fases cristalinas Mn2O3, α-MnO2 y CeO2 dependiendode la composición del sistema. Los sólidos secos y calcinados fueron impregnados conAu por el método de precipitación-depósito utilizando como precursor HAuCl4.4H2O. PorFRX se determino que el contenido en peso promedio de Au% alcanzaba un valor de1.14. El estudio de la oxidación de CO señala que los sólidos de composición 50:50 sonlos más activos, lo cual es atribuido a una mayor labilidad de los oxígenos de red y por lapresencia de pares redox Mn+4/Mn3+, Ce+4/Ce+3. Los resultados permiten sugerir que ladispersión del Au y su tamaño de partícula es función de la técnica de preparación y delcatión Ce. Finalmente, por el estudio DRIFTS se propone un mecanismo de reacciónpara cada uno de los Au/Mn-Ce y cuyos resultados sugieren que la formación de laespecie bicarbonato es la más favorable para la oxidación del CO a CO2.A series of Mn-Ce solids with 0:100, 50:50 and 100:0 atomic ratios were prepared from alkaline precipitation with Na(OH) at pH=11. The XRD test showed the formation of different crystalline phases Mn2O3, α-MnO2 and CeO2 depending on the system composition. By means of XPS spectroscopy it was determined the presence of Mn4+/Mn3+ and that the Ce3+ surface concentration increased with Ce content. The dried and calcined solids were impregnated with Au by the precipitation-deposit method using as precursor HAuCl4.4H2O. By XRF it was determined that the content in average weight of Au% reached a value of 1.14. The CO oxidation test showed that the solids of composition 50:50 were the most active, fact assigned to the formation of structural defects that allowed a higher lability of the lattice oxygens due to Mn+4/Mn3+, Ce+4/Ce+3 redox pairs. The results allowed inferring that the dispersion of Au and its particle size are function of the preparation technique. Finally, by DRIFTS test it was proposed a reaction mechanism for each Au/Mn-Ce. These results suggested that the bicarbonate species was the most favorable for oxidation from CO to CO2.Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ciencias AplicadasComisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la provincia de Buenos AiresCentro de Tecnología de Recursos Minerales y Cerámic

Differences in expression rather than methylation at placenta-specific imprinted loci is associated with intrauterine growth restriction

Background: genome-wide studies have begun to link subtle variations in both allelic DNA methylation and parent-of-origin genetic effects with early development. Numerous reports have highlighted that the placenta plays a critical role in coordinating fetal growth, with many key functions regulated by genomic imprinting. With the recent description of wide-spread polymorphic placenta-specific imprinting, the molecular mechanisms leading to this curious polymorphic epigenetic phenomenon is unknown, as is their involvement in pregnancies complications. Results: profiling of 35 ubiquitous and 112 placenta-specific imprinted differentially methylated regions (DMRs) using high-density methylation arrays and pyrosequencing revealed isolated aberrant methylation at ubiquitous DMRs as well as abundant hypomethylation at placenta-specific DMRs. Analysis of the underlying chromatin state revealed that the polymorphic nature is not only evident at the level of allelic methylation, but DMRs can also adopt an unusual epigenetic signature where the underlying histones are biallelically enrichment of H3K4 methylation, a modification normally mutually exclusive with DNA methylation. Quantitative expression analysis in placenta identified two genes, GPR1-AS1 and ZDBF2, that were differentially expressed between IUGRs and control samples after adjusting for clinical factors, revealing coordinated deregulation at the chromosome 2q33 imprinted locus. Conclusions: DNA methylation is less stable at placenta-specific imprinted DMRs compared to ubiquitous DMRs and contributes to privileged state of the placenta epigenome. IUGR-associated expression differences were identified for several imprinted transcripts independent of allelic methylation. Further work is required to determine if these differences are the cause IUGR or reflect unique adaption by the placenta to developmental stresses