Challenges and Opportunities for the Advancement of GIS Education in TANZANIA

Rapid developments in science and technology have driven utilization of Geographical Information Science (GIS) in various fields of Planning, Management, and exploitation of environmental resources and provision of social services. As information technology gains momentum, GIS uses information science infrastructure to address the problems of geography, cartography, geosciences locations and related branches of science and engineering; that is shortly referred to as Geo-informatics. Increased application of GIS calls for more demand of advanced Geo-informatics education worldwide. This study has established major challenges for the advancement of Geo-informatics education in Tanzania and any possible opportunities which can be utilized for the improvement of the same. Prominent challenges identified could be associated with lack of reliable power, internet connection, computer system and accessories and appropriate software. Other challenges were related to the nature of the school curriculum and insufficient knowledge and skills of the human resources. Opportunities identified involve available government plans for increasing power supply, increasing mobile phones networks, Tanzania ICT and education and training policy with a major aim of improving ICT education and the competency based school curriculum under implementation. But the government should further support directly or indirectly all efforts by various groups that participate in advancing Geo-informatics education in the country. Keywords: Education, Geo-informatics, Tanzania, GIS, Transfer of Technology IC

Transcriptional activation of CBFβ by CDK11p110 is necessary to promote osteosarcoma cell proliferation.

BACKGROUND:Aberrant expression of cyclin-dependent protein kinases (CDK) is a hallmark of cancer. CDK11 plays a crucial role in cancer cell growth and proliferation. However, the molecular mechanisms of CDK11 and CDK11 transcriptionally regulated genes are largely unknown. METHODS:In this study, we performed a global transcriptional analysis using gene array technology to investigate the transcriptional role of CDK11 in osteosarcoma. The promoter luciferase assay, chromatin immunoprecipitation assay, and Gel Shift assay were used to identify direct transcriptional targets of CDK11. Clinical relevance and function of core-binding factor subunit beta (CBFβ) were further accessed in osteosarcoma. RESULTS:We identified a transcriptional role of protein-DNA interaction for CDK11p110, but not CDK11p58, in the regulation of CBFβ expression in osteosarcoma cells. The CBFβ promoter luciferase assay, chromatin immunoprecipitation assay, and Gel Shift assay confirmed that CBFβ is a direct transcriptional target of CDK11. High expression of CBFβ is associated with poor outcome in osteosarcoma patients. Expression of CBFβ contributes to the proliferation and metastatic behavior of osteosarcoma cells. CONCLUSIONS:These data establish CBFβ as a mediator of CDK11p110 dependent oncogenesis and suggest that targeting the CDK11- CBFβ pathway may be a promising therapeutic strategy for osteosarcoma treatment

Correction to: Transcriptional activation of CBFβ by CDK11p110 is necessary to promote osteosarcoma cell proliferation.

Following publication of the original article [1], it was reported that Figs. 4 and 5 were not updated during the production process

Vegetation greenness and photosynthetic phenology in response to climatic determinants

Vegetation phenology is a key indicator of vegetation-climate interactions and carbon sink changes in ecosystems. Therefore, it is very important to understand the temporal and spatial variability of vegetation phenology and the driving climatic determinants [e.g., temperature (Ts) and soil moisture (SM)]. Vegetation greenness and photosynthetic phenology were derived using the double logistic (DL) method to enhance vegetation index (EVI) and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) spring and autumn phenology, respectively. The growing season length (GSL) of greenness phenology (about 100 days) derived EVI was longer than GSL of photosynthetic phenology (about 80 days) derived SIF. Although their overall spatiotemporal pattern trends were consistent, photosynthetic phenology varied 1.4 to 3.1 times more than greenness phenology over time. In addition, SIF-based photosynthetic phenology and EVI-based greenness phenology showed consistent factors of drivers but differed to some extent in spatial patterns and the most relevant preseason dates. Spring photosynthetic phenology was mainly influenced by pre-season mean cumulative Ts (about 90 days). However, greenness phenology was controlled by both pre-seasons mean cumulative Ts [(about 55 days) and mean cumulative SM (about 40 days)]. Autumn photosynthetic phenology was controlled by both periods’ mean cumulative Ts [(about 20 days) and SM (about 20 days)], but autumn greenness phenology was mainly influenced by pre-season mean cumulative Ts (85 days). The comparison analysis of SIF and EVI phenology helps to understand the difference between photosynthetic phenology and greenness phenology at a regional scale

Razvoj normaliziranog indeksa tla za urbane studije upotrebom podataka daljinskih mjerenja

This paper presents two novel spectral soil area indices to identify bare soil area and distinguish it more accurately from the urban impervious surface area (ISA). This study designs these indices based on medium spatial resolution remote sensing data from Landsat 8 OLI dataset. Extracting bare soil or urban ISA is more challenging than extracting water bodies or vegetation in multispectral Remote Sensing (RS). Bare soil and the urban ISA area often were mixed because of their spectral similarity in multispectral sensors. This study proposes Normalized Soil Area Index 1 (NSAI1) and Normalized Soil Area Index 2 (NSAI2) using typical multispectral bands. Experiments show that these two indices have an overall accuracy of around 90%. The spectral similarity index (SDI) shows these two indices have higher separability between soil area and ISA than previous indices. The result shows that percentile thresholds can effectively classify bare soil areas from the background. The combined use of both indices measured the soil area of the study area over 71 km2. Most importantly, proposed soil indices can refine urban ISA measurement accuracy in spatiotemporal studies.Ovaj rad prikazuje dva nova spektralna indeksa tla kako bi se identificiralo golo tlo te kako bi se bolje razlikovalo od urbanih nepropusnih površina (ISA). Ti indeksi su definirani na temelju srednje prostorne rezolucije daljinskih podataka Landsat 8 OLI skupa podataka. U multispektralnim daljinskim mjerenjima (RS) prepoznavanje golog tla ili urbane ISA podloge je složenije od prepoznavanja vodenih tijela ili podloge s vegetacijom. Zbog sličnosti spektara dobivenih multispektralnim senzorima golo tlo i urbana ISA površina često se ne razlučuju. Ova studija predlaže dva normalizirana indeksa tla (NSAI1 i NSAI2) korištenjem tipičnih multispektralnih pojaseva. Eksperimenti pokazuju da ta dva indeksa imaju sveukupnu točnost od približno 90%. Indeks spektralne sličnosti (SDI) pokazuje da ta dva indeksa razlikuju golo tlo od urbane ISA podloge bolje nego dosadašnji indeksi. Rezultati pokazuju da percentilni pragovi mogu efikasno razlučiti površine s golim tlom od pozadine. Kombiniranom upotrebom oba indeksa izmjerena je površina tla veća od 71 km2. Najznačajniji rezultat je taj da predloženi indeksi tla mogu poboljšati točnost mjerenja urbanih ISA u u prostorno-vremenskim studijama

The Motion of An Inv Nodal Cilium: a Realistic Model Revealing Dynein-Driven Ciliary Motion with Microtubule Mislocalization

Background/Aims: Nodal cilia that rotate in the ventral node play an important role in establishing left-right asymmetry during embryogenesis; however, inv mutant cilia present abnormal movement and induce laterality defects. The mechanism of their motility, which is regulated by dynein activation and microtubule arrangement, has not been fully understood. This study analyzed the dynein-triggered ciliary motion in the abnormal ultrastructure of the inv mutant, aiming to quantitatively evaluate the influence of microtubule mislocalization on the movement of the cilium. Methods: We established a realistic 3-D model of an inv mutant cilium with an ultrastructure based on tomographic datasets generated by ultra-high voltage electron microscopy. The time-variant activation of the axonemal dynein force was simulated by pairs of point loads and embedded at dynein-mounted positions between adjacent microtubule doublets in this mathematical model. Utilizing the finite element method and deformable grid, the motility of the mutant cilium that is induced by various dynein activation hypotheses was investigated and compared to experimental observation. Results: The results indicate that for the inv mutant, simulations of the ciliary movement with the engagement of dyneins based on the distance-controlled pattern in the partially activation scenario are broadly consistent with the observation; the shortening of the microtubules induces smaller movement amplitudes, while the angles of the mislocalized microtubules affect the pattern of the ciliary movement, and during the ciliary movement, the microtubules swing and twist in the mutant ciliary body. Conclusion: More generally, this study implies that dynein engagement is sensitive to subtle geometric changes in the axoneme, and thus, this geometry greatly influences the integrity of a well-formed ciliary rotation

ZNF93 Increases Resistance to ET-743 (Trabectedin; Yondelis®) and PM00104 (Zalypsis®) in Human Cancer Cell Lines

ET-743 (trabectedin, Yondelis) and PM00104 (Zalypsis) are marine derived compounds that have antitumor activity. ET-743 and PM00104 exposure over sustained periods of treatment will result in the development of drug resistance, but the mechanisms which lead to resistance are not yet understood.Human chondrosarcoma cell lines resistant to ET-743 (CS-1/ER) or PM00104 (CS-1/PR) were established in this study. The CS-1/ER and CS-1/PR exhibited cross resistance to cisplatin and methotrexate but not to doxorubicin. Human Affymetrix Gene Chip arrays were used to examine relative gene expression in these cell lines. We found that a large number of genes have altered expression levels in CS-1/ER and CS-1/PR when compared to the parental cell line. 595 CS-1/ER and 498 CS-1/PR genes were identified as overexpressing; 856 CS-1/ER and 874 CS-1/PR transcripts were identified as underexpressing. Three zinc finger protein (ZNF) genes were on the top 10 overexpressed genes list. These genes have not been previously associated with drug resistance in tumor cells. Differential expressions of ZNF93 and ZNF43 genes were confirmed in both CS-1/ER and CS-1/PR resistant cell lines by real-time RT-PCR. ZNF93 was overexpressed in two ET-743 resistant Ewing sarcoma cell lines as well as in a cisplatin resistant ovarian cancer cell line, but was not overexpressed in paclitaxel resistant cell lines. ZNF93 knockdown by siRNA in CS-1/ER and CS-1/PR caused increased sensitivity for ET-743, PM00104, and cisplatin. Furthermore, ZNF93 transfected CS-1 cells are relatively resistant to ET-743, PM00104 and cisplatin.This study suggests that zinc finger proteins, and ZNF93 in particular, are involved in resistance to ET-743 and PM00104

Estimating Forest Aboveground Biomass by Combining Optical and SAR Data: A Case Study in Genhe, Inner Mongolia, China

Estimation of forest aboveground biomass is critical for regional carbon policies and sustainable forest management. Passive optical remote sensing and active microwave remote sensing both play an important role in the monitoring of forest biomass. However, optical spectral reflectance is saturated in relatively dense vegetation areas, and microwave backscattering is significantly influenced by the underlying soil when the vegetation coverage is low. Both of these conditions decrease the estimation accuracy of forest biomass. A new optical and microwave integrated vegetation index (VI) was proposed based on observations from both field experiments and satellite (Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and RADARSAT-2) data. According to the difference in interaction between the multispectral reflectance and microwave backscattering signatures with biomass, the combined VI (COVI) was designed using the weighted optical optimized soil-adjusted vegetation index (OSAVI) and microwave horizontally transmitted and vertically received signal (HV) to overcome the disadvantages of both data types. The performance of the COVI was evaluated by comparison with those of the sole optical data, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, and the simple combination of independent optical and SAR variables. The most accurate performance was obtained by the models based on the COVI and optical and microwave optimal variables excluding OSAVI and HV, in combination with a random forest algorithm and the largest number of reference samples. The results also revealed that the predictive accuracy depended highly on the statistical method and the number of sample units. The validation indicated that this integrated method of determining the new VI is a good synergistic way to combine both optical and microwave information for the accurate estimation of forest biomass