A High-Resolution Airborne Color-Infrared Camera Water Mask for the NASA ABoVE Campaign

The airborne AirSWOT instrument suite, consisting of an interferometric Ka-band synthetic aperture radar and color-infrared (CIR) camera, was deployed to northern North America in July and August 2017 as part of the NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE). We present validated, open (i.e., vegetation-free) surface water masks produced from high-resolution (1 m), co-registered AirSWOT CIR imagery using a semi-automated, object-based water classification. The imagery and resulting high-resolution water masks are available as open-access datasets and support interpretation of AirSWOT radar and other coincident ABoVE image products, including LVIS, UAVSAR, AIRMOSS, AVIRIS-NG, and CFIS. These synergies offer promising potential for multi-sensor analysis of Arctic-Boreal surface water bodies. In total, 3167 km2 of open surface water were mapped from 23,380 km2 of flight lines spanning 23 degrees of latitude and broad environmental gradients. Detected water body sizes range from 0.00004 km2 (40 m2) to 15 km2. Power-law extrapolations are commonly used to estimate the abundance of small lakes from coarser resolution imagery, and our mapped water bodies followed power-law distributions, but only for water bodies greater than 0.34 (±0.13) km2 in area. For water bodies exceeding this size threshold, the coefficients of power-law fits vary for different Arctic-Boreal physiographic terrains (wetland, prairie pothole, lowland river valley, thermokarst, and Canadian Shield). Thus, direct mapping using high-resolution imagery remains the most accurate way to estimate the abundance of small surface water bodies. We conclude that empirical scaling relationships, useful for estimating total trace gas exchange and aquatic habitats on Arctic-Boreal landscapes, are uniquely enabled by high-resolution AirSWOT-like mappings and automated detection methods such as those developed here

Increasing Support for Contraception as HIV Prevention: Stakeholder Mapping to Identify Influential Individuals and Their Perceptions

BACKGROUND: Voluntary contraceptive use by HIV-positive women currently prevents more HIV-positive births, at a lower cost, than anti-retroviral drug (ARV) regimens. Despite this evidence, most prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programs focus solely on providing ARV prophylaxis to pregnant women and rarely include the prevention of unintended pregnancies among HIV-positive women. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To strengthen support for family planning as HIV prevention, we systematically identified key individuals in the field of international HIV/AIDS-those who could potentially influence the issue-and sought to determine their perceptions of barriers to and facilitators for implementing this PMTCT strategy. We used a criteria-based approach to determine which HIV/AIDS stakeholders have the most significant impact on HIV/AIDS research, programs, funding and policy and stratified purposive sampling to conduct interviews with a subset of these individuals. The interview findings pointed to obstacles to strengthening linkages between family planning and HIV/AIDS, including the need for: resources to integrate family planning and HIV services, infrastructure or capacity to provide integrated services at the facility level, national leadership and coordination, and targeted advocacy to key decision-makers. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The individuals we identified as having regional or international influence in the field of HIV/AIDS have the ability to leverage an increasingly conducive funding environment and a growing evidence base to address the policy, programmatic and operational challenges to integrating family planning with HIV/AIDS. Fostering greater support for implementing contraception for HIV prevention will require the dedication, collaboration and coordination of many such actors. Our findings can inform a targeted advocacy campaign

A recurrent germline PAX5 mutation confers susceptibility to pre-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Somatic alterations of the lymphoid transcription factor gene PAX5 (also known as BSAP) are a hallmark of B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL)1–3, but inherited mutations of PAX5 have not previously been described. Here we report a new heterozygous germline variant, c.547G>A (p.Gly183Ser), affecting the octapeptide domain of PAX5 that was found to segregate with disease in two unrelated kindreds with autosomal dominant B-ALL. Leukemic cells from all affected individuals in both families exhibited 9p deletion, with loss of heterozygosity and retention of the mutant PAX5 allele at 9p13. Two additional sporadic ALL cases with 9p loss harbored somatic PAX5 substitutions affecting Gly183. Functional and gene expression analysis of the PAX5 mutation demonstrated that it had significantly reduced transcriptional activity. These data extend the role of PAX5 alterations in the pathogenesis of pre-B cell ALL and implicate PAX5 in a new syndrome of susceptibility to pre-B cell neoplasia

The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex underlies our complex cognitive capabilities, yet little is known about the specific genetic loci that influence human cortical structure. To identify genetic variants that affect cortical structure, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 51,665 individuals. We analyzed the surface area and average thickness of the whole cortex and 34 regions with known functional specializations. We identified 199 significant loci and found significant enrichment for loci influencing total surface area within regulatory elements that are active during prenatal cortical development, supporting the radial unit hypothesis. Loci that affect regional surface area cluster near genes in Wnt signaling pathways, which influence progenitor expansion and areal identity. Variation in cortical structure is genetically correlated with cognitive function, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression, neuroticism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Number of stakeholders found by data search.

<p>(Note: The sum equals a higher number than the final stakeholder total due to several individuals who appeared in more than one of the four searches. The total number of stakeholders was reached after removing duplicate individuals.)</p

Key interview findings by theme.

<p>Key interview findings by theme.</p

WHO/UNAIDS strategy for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (see [1]).

<p>Triangle added for emphasis by Family Health International.</p