Appendix A. Trends in agricultural and forestry statistics and relationships of annual NDVI with crop yield and total plantation area.

Trends in agricultural and forestry statistics and relationships of annual NDVI with crop yield and total plantation area

Comprehensive species set revealing the phylogeny and biogeography of Feliformia (Mammalia, Carnivora) based on mitochondrial DNA

<div><p>Extant Feliformia species are one of the most diverse radiations of Carnivora (~123 species). Despite substantial recent interest in their conservation, diversification, and systematic study, no previous phylogeny contains a comprehensive species set, and no biogeography of this group is available. Here, we present a phylogenetic estimate for Feliformia with a comprehensive species set and establish a historical biogeography based on mitochondrial DNA. Both the Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogeny for Feliformia are elucidated in our analyses and are strongly consistent with many groups recognized in previous studies. The mitochondrial phylogenetic relationships of Felidae were for the first time successfully reconstructed in our analyses with strong supported. When divergence times and dispersal/vicariance histories were compared with historical sea level changes, four dispersal and six vicariance events were identified. These vicariance events were closely related with global sea level changes. The transgression of sea into the lowland plains between Eurasia and Africa may have caused the vicariance in these regions. A fall in the sea level during late Miocene to Pliocene produced the Bering strait land bridge, which assisted the migration of American Feliformia ancestors from Asia to North America. In contrast with the ‘sweepstakes hypothesis’, our results suggest that the climate cooling during 30–27 Ma assisted Feliformia migration from the African mainland to Madagascar by creating a short-lived ice bridge across the Mozambique Channel. Lineages-through-time plots revealed a large increase in lineages since the Mid-Miocene. During the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum, the ecosystems and population of Feliformia rapidly expanded. Subsequent climate cooling catalyzed immigration, speciation, and the extinction of Feliformia.</p></div

Regioselective and Stereospecific Copper-Catalyzed Deoxygenation of Epoxides to Alkenes

Two copper salts (Cu­(CF₃CO₂)₂ and IMesCuCl) were identified as earth-abundant, inexpensive, but effective metal catalysts together with diazo malonate for chemo-/regioselective and stereospecific deoxygenation of various epoxides with tolerance of common functional groups (alkene, ketone, ester, <i>p</i>-methoxybenzyl, benzyl, <i>tert</i>-butyldimethylsilyl, and triisopropylsilyl). In particular, the unprecedented regioselectivity allowed for the first time monodeoxygenation of diepoxides to alkenyl epoxides. Density functional theory mechanistic studies showed that the deoxygenation occurred by collapsing the free ylide, unfavoring the possible intuitive pathway via cycloreversion of possible oxetane

Image_1_Application of the distally based sural neurocutaneous flaps in the management of foot and ankle defects in patients with diabetic foot.tif

BackgroundWe report our experience on the use of a distally based sural flap for soft tissue reconstruction of foot and ankle defects in patients with diabetic foot.MethodsThe actual study is a retrospective, open, non-controlled, and clinical study of 25 patients treated with diabetic foot on whom reconstruction with distally based sural neurocutaneous flaps was performed from May 2019 to December 2021.ResultsThe mean age was 64.9 years, and there were 15 male and 10 female patients. The mean follow-up was 9.8 months, which ranged from 6 to 12 months. The size of the flaps ranged from 6 × 5 to 15 × 9 cm2. Twenty-two of the 25 flaps survived intact with sufficient blood supply. Two cases had a small superficial necrosis, which was resolved after a change of daily dressing and was heeled eventually. In one case, partial necrosis was observed that was managed with minor revision and the use of split-thickness skin graft.ConclusionsThe distally based sural flap is considered to be useful for reconstruction of foot and ankle defects in patients with diabetic foot.</p

HDS simulation result after 450 hours.

(a) Cell cluster generated by Gell. (b) 60 μm thick central slice of the HDS simulation result shows the microstructure of the necrotic core of Gell simulation. (c) central slice of PhysiCell showing identical microstructure. Both spheroids have a radius of 1.87 mm.</p

Melanoma cell line spheroids.

Two spheroids of the same melanoma cell line (A2508) show distinct pattern differences in necrotic core microstructures due to differences in cell treatment. Images are adapted from [33], and treatment details are not mentioned in the original literature. (a) A pimonidazole stained spheroid. (b) A hematoxylin and eosin stained spheroid. Adapted from [33] with permission.</p

Gell simulation speedup with respect to PhysiCell.

Gell simulation speedup with respect to PhysiCell with varying cell numbers (a), domain voxel numbers (b), and PhysiCell CPU thread numbers (c with logarithmic x scale).</p

Quantile-Optimal Treatment Regimes

<p>Finding the optimal treatment regime (or a series of sequential treatment regimes) based on individual characteristics has important applications in areas such as precision medicine, government policies, and active labor market interventions. In the current literature, the optimal treatment regime is usually defined as the one that maximizes the average benefit in the potential population. This article studies a general framework for estimating the quantile-optimal treatment regime, which is of importance in many real-world applications. Given a collection of treatment regimes, we consider robust estimation of the quantile-optimal treatment regime, which does not require the analyst to specify an outcome regression model. We propose an alternative formulation of the estimator as a solution of an optimization problem with an estimated nuisance parameter. This novel representation allows us to investigate the asymptotic theory of the estimated optimal treatment regime using empirical process techniques. We derive theory involving a nonstandard convergence rate and a nonnormal limiting distribution. The same nonstandard convergence rate would also occur if the mean optimality criterion is applied, but this has not been studied. Thus, our results fill an important theoretical gap for a general class of policy search methods in the literature. The article investigates both static and dynamic treatment regimes. In addition, doubly robust estimation and alternative optimality criterion such as that based on Gini’s mean difference or weighted quantiles are investigated. Numerical simulations demonstrate the performance of the proposed estimator. A data example from a trial in HIV+ patients is used to illustrate the application. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.</p

Image_2_Application of the distally based sural neurocutaneous flaps in the management of foot and ankle defects in patients with diabetic foot.tif

BackgroundWe report our experience on the use of a distally based sural flap for soft tissue reconstruction of foot and ankle defects in patients with diabetic foot.MethodsThe actual study is a retrospective, open, non-controlled, and clinical study of 25 patients treated with diabetic foot on whom reconstruction with distally based sural neurocutaneous flaps was performed from May 2019 to December 2021.ResultsThe mean age was 64.9 years, and there were 15 male and 10 female patients. The mean follow-up was 9.8 months, which ranged from 6 to 12 months. The size of the flaps ranged from 6 × 5 to 15 × 9 cm2. Twenty-two of the 25 flaps survived intact with sufficient blood supply. Two cases had a small superficial necrosis, which was resolved after a change of daily dressing and was heeled eventually. In one case, partial necrosis was observed that was managed with minor revision and the use of split-thickness skin graft.ConclusionsThe distally based sural flap is considered to be useful for reconstruction of foot and ankle defects in patients with diabetic foot.</p