Automated Fractional Snow Cover Monitoring From Near-Surface Remote Sensing In Grassland

Snow cover is an important variable in both climatological and hydrological studies because of its relationship to environmental energy and mass flux. However, variability in snow cover can confound satellite-based efforts to monitor vegetation phenology. This research explores the utility of the PhenoCam network cameras to estimate Fractional Snow Cover (FSC) in grassland. The goal is to operationalize FSC estimates from PhenoCams to inform and improve satellite-based determination of phenological metrics. The study site is the Oakville Prairie Biological Field Station, located near Grand Forks, North Dakota. I developed a mostly semi-automated process to estimate FSC from PhenoCam images through Python coding. Compared with previous research, which make use of RGB images only, the use of the monochrome RGB + NIR (near-infrared) channel reduced pixel misclassification and increased accuracy. The results have an average RMSE of 7.67 compared to visual estimates. This is a promising outcome, although not every PhenoCam system has NIR capability

DTM-based Filtrations

Despite strong stability properties, the persistent homology of filtrations classically used in Topological Data Analysis, such as, e.g. the Cech or Vietoris-Rips filtrations, are very sensitive to the presence of outliers in the data from which they are computed. In this paper, we introduce and study a new family of filtrations, the DTM-filtrations, built on top of point clouds in the Euclidean space which are more robust to noise and outliers. The approach adopted in this work relies on the notion of distance-to-measure functions, and extends some previous work on the approximation of such functions.Comment: Abel Symposia, Springer, In press, Topological Data Analysi

Program to promote oral hygiene habits in children with intellectual disabilities

An intervention study of health education was conducted in order to assess the impact of a program to promote oral hygiene habits in children with intellectual disabilities (ID). The study was quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test, and included 13 children with intellectual disabilities, ranging between 9 and 12 years old. The program consisted of 6 sessions, whose activities are designed to encourage participation and interest of children with ID. The results showed an improvement in oral hygiene habits. The implementation of programs to promote hygiene, appropriate activities designed with the cognitive level of the population favors the oral health status

Influence of organic groundcovers on mycorrhizal colonization and symbiosis of organically managed fruit crops

Ground covers have the potential to impact the crop rhizosphere biology, which includes organisms such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which in turn affect the crop host plant through symbiosis. There has been evidence that a ground cover that provides a suitable environment for colonization of AMF and subsequent symbiosis could be a tool in organic fruit production. The objective of this research was to compare colonization of AMF in strawberry plant (Frageria x ananassa cv. Radiance) and apple rootstocks (Malus x domestica, cv. M. 26) grown in a greenhouse affected by various ground cover treatments. Inoculation was achieved by mixing BioOrganics™ Endomycorrhizal Inoculant directly into soilless media according to label rates. Following a dormancy period, plants were treated with one of the following ground cover treatments: 1) city-generated urban green-compost (GC), 2) shredded white paper, 3) urban refuse wood chips or 4) an untreated control. The GC ground cover significantly increased percent colonization of AMF compared to other ground covers; however, AMF infection did not affect plant biomass, root volume, root surface area, root diameter, or leaf area. The AMF suppressed root length; plants inoculated with AMF had shorter roots but similar root volume to compared to non-inoculated plants. The GC treatment may have disproportionately contributed more nutrition by media composition of a smaller particle size and a decreased lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose content compared to other ground cover treatments. Though the ground covers in this study had no effect on symbiotic AMF benefits, long-term studies with mature host plants could reveal a correlation between ground cover media and symbiosis

Using the Sum of Roots and Its Application to a Control Design Problem

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Соотношение путей углеводного синтеза при введении свободных и фосфорилированных сахаров в листья картофеля

Показано, что регуляция путей биосинтеза углеводов может осуществляться через изменение концентрации промежуточных и конечных метаболитов. При этом одним из факторов, регулирующих направленность синтеза углеводов, является активность АДФГ- и УДФГ-пирофосфорилаз. По-видимому, регуляция работы этих ферментов может осуществляться низкомолекулярными метаболитами по принципу обратной связи

Ruptured Acute Type B Dissection Superimposed on the Abdominal Aortic Aneurysmal Wall Wrapping a Prior Graft

We report a case of a 73-year-old woman with a type B aortic dissection superimposed on the abdominal aneurysmal wall that was wrapped around a bifurcated graft, implanted for a fusiform aneurysm 12 years previously. She was treated conservatively despite evidence of retroperitoneal bleeding because of thrombosis of the entire false lumen at the time of admission. Seven days later she underwent tube grafting on an urgent basis because a new enhanced space appeared around the graft. A small tear at the previous aortic suture line and dissection of the aneurysmal wall that wrapped the prior graft were noted at the time of surgery. The postoperative course was uneventful