Use of soil moisture information in yield models

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Intraocular retinal transplants

Embryonic rat retinae transplanted into the anterior chamber of adult rat eyes of the same or different strain survive and grow. Light and electron microscopic studies show that the transplants undergo histogenetic differentiation, resulting in the development of mature inner and outer layer neurons and Muller glial cells. Vascular connections develop between the host iris and the retinal transplant. These initial observations indicate that retinal transplantation to a recipient eye is a procedure which offers ample opportunities for the study of problems related to neural development, retinal plasticity and repair

Inhibition of delta-like ligand 4 induces luteal hypervascularization followed by functional and structural luteolysis in the primate ovary

Using specific inhibitors established that angiogenesis in the ovarian follicle and corpus luteum is driven by vascular endothelial growth factor. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the Notch ligand, delta-like ligand 4 (Dll4) negatively regulates vascular endothelial growth factor-mediated vessel sprouting and branching. To investigate the role of Dll4 in regulation of the ovarian vasculature, we administered a neutralizing antibody to Dll4 to marmosets at the periovulatory period. The vasculature was examined on luteal d 3 or d 10: angiogenesis was determined by incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine, staining for CD31 and cell death by staining for activated caspase-3. Ovulatory progesterone rises were monitored to determine effects of treatment on luteal function and time to recover normal cycles in a separate group of animals. Additionally, animals were treated in the follicular or midluteal phase to determine effects of Dll4 inhibition on follicular development and luteal function. Controls were treated with human IgG (Fc). Corpora lutea from marmosets treated during the periovulatory period exhibited increased angiogenesis and increased vascular density on luteal d 3, but plasma progesterone was significantly suppressed. By luteal d 10, corpora lutea in treated ovaries were significantly reduced in size, with involution of luteal cells, increased cell death, and suppressed plasma progesterone concentrations. In contrast, initiation of anti-Dll4 treatment during the midluteal phase produced only a slight suppression of progesterone for the remainder of the cycle. Moreover, Dll4 inhibition had no appreciable effect on follicular development. These results show that Dll4 has a specific and critical role in the development of the normal luteal vasculature

The Right Place at the Right Time: Creative Spaces in Libraries

Purpose This essay explores the recent trend in libraries: that of the establishment of spaces specifically set aside for creative work. The rise of these dedicated creative spaces is owed to a confluence of factors that happen to be finding their expression together in recent years. This essay examines the history of these spaces and explores the factors that gave rise to them and will fuel them moving forward. Design/Methodology/Approach A viewpoint piece, this essay combines historical research and historical/comparative analyses to examine the ways by which libraries have supported creative work in the past and how they may continue to do so into the 21st century. Findings The key threads brought together include a societal recognition of the value of creativity and related skills and attributes; the philosophies, values, and missions of libraries in both their longstanding forms and in recent evolutions; the rise of participatory culture as a result of inexpensive technologies; improved means to build community and share results of efforts; and library experience and historical practice in matters related to creativity. The chapter concludes with advice for those interested in the establishment of such spaces, grounding those reflections in the author’s experiences in developing a new creative space at Virginia Commonwealth University. Originality/value While a number of pieces have been written that discuss the practicalities of developing certain kinds of creative spaces, very little has been written that situates these spaces in larger social and library professional contexts; this essay begins to fill that gap

Control and elimination of schistosomiasis as a public health problem: thresholds fail to differentiate schistosomiasis morbidity prevalence in children

BACKGROUND: Current World Health Organization guidelines utilize prevalence of heavy-intensity infections (PHIs), that is, ≥50 eggs per 10 mL of urine for Schistosoma haematobium and ≥400 eggs per gram of stool for S. mansoni, to determine whether a targeted area has controlled schistosomiasis morbidity or eliminated schistosomiasis as a public health problem. The relationship between these PHI categories and morbidity is not well understood. METHODS: School-age participants enrolled in schistosomiasis monitoring and evaluation cohorts from 2003 to 2008 in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia were surveyed for infection and morbidity at baseline and after 1 and 2 rounds of preventive chemotherapy. Logistic regression was used to compare morbidity prevalence among participants based on their school's PHI category. RESULTS: Microhematuria levels were associated with the S. haematobium PHI categories at all 3 time points. For any other S. haematobium or S. mansoni morbidity that was measured, PHI categories did not differentiate morbidity prevalence levels consistently. CONCLUSIONS: These analyses suggest that current PHI categorizations do not differentiate the prevalence of standard morbidity markers. A reevaluation of the criteria for schistosomiasis control is warranted

Modeling Checkpoint-Based Movement with the Earth Mover's Distance

Movement data comes in various forms, including trajectory data and checkpoint data. While trajectories give detailed information about the movement of individual entities, checkpoint data in its simplest form does not give identities, just counts at checkpoints. However, checkpoint data is of increasing interest since it is readily available due to privacy reasons and as a by-product of other data collection. In this paper we propose to use the Earth Mover’s Distance as a versatile tool to reconstruct individual movements or flow based on checkpoint counts at different times. We analyze the modeling possibilities and provide experiments that validate model predictions, based on coarse-grained aggregations of data about actual movements of couriers in London, UK. While we cannot expect to reconstruct precise individual movements from highly granular checkpoint data, the evaluation does show that the approach can generate meaningful estimates of object movements. B. Speckmann and K. Verbeek are supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under project nos. 639.023.208 and 639.021.541, respectively. This paper arose from work initiated at Dagstuhl seminar 12512 “Representation, analysis and visualization of moving objects”, December 2012. The authors gratefully acknowledge Schloss Dagstuhl for their support