Remote sensing of earth terrain

Abstracts from 46 refereed journal and conference papers are presented for research on remote sensing of earth terrain. The topics covered related to remote sensing include the following: mathematical models, vegetation cover, sea ice, finite difference theory, electromagnetic waves, polarimetry, neural networks, random media, synthetic aperture radar, electromagnetic bias, and others

Editorial

Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Myanma Pyay (Burma): An Introductio

Genetic analysis of Myanmar Vigna species in responses to salt stress at the seedling stage

Twelve (12) Vigna genotypes were investigated for the evaluation of their tolerance levels in responses to four concentrations of NaCl (0, 75, 150 and 225 mM) at seedling stage. In the investigation, salt stress inhibited almost all the growth parameters as well as relative water content;  however, the degree of reduction was highly dependent on different genotypes and salinity levels. Generally, the control plants showed higher degree of all measured parameters than those of salt stress plants. Analysis of the heredity parameters based on the 12 investigated genotypes showed different genotypic variance of the salt tolerance index (STI) values. Salinity stress induced two new bands between 45 and 22 kDa, respectively, in salt tolerant genotypes. Furthermore, band intensity of the salt treated genotypes was higher than the control plants. Ward’s clustering technique was clearly divided into two clusters, A and B, according to their levels of salt tolerance. Considering their STI values of growth parameters, two genotypes V7 and V4 were identified as salt tolerant, whereas, V2, V6, V9, V8, V11 and V1 were recognized as salinity susceptible genotypes. These results suggest that, the genetically diverseaccessions resistant to salt stresses within the Vigna genotypes can be of considerable practical value for studying the mechanism of salt tolerance and for the provision of genetic resources for salinity breeding program.Key words: Cluster analysis, heritability, salt tolerance, SDS-PAGE, Vigna

Molecular genetic studies of primary open angle and angle closure glaucoma.

Glaucoma, a group of heterogeneous optic neuropathies characterized by progressive visual field loss, is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. The condition has a substantial heritable basis, as illustrated by the numerous loci and genes identified to date, and the large proportion of patients having a family history. Categorized according to the anatomy of the anterior chamber angle, there are 2 main forms of glaucoma, primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG). The first half of the thesis describes the molecular genetic study of POAG, while the latter deals with PACG. Primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) accounts for most glaucoma in Caucasian and Afro-Caribbean populations. The condition is classified according to the presence of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) into high- tension glaucoma (HTG) or normal tension glaucoma (NTG). OPAl, the gene responsible for autosomal dominant optic atrophy represents an excellent candidate gene for POAG (in particular NTG). Single nucleotide polymorphisms on intervening sequence (IVS) 8 of the 0/M7gene (genotype IVS 8 +4 C/T; +32 T/C) were found to be strongly associated with a fifth of NTG cases and may be a marker for disease association, providing the first evidence of an association between OPAl and NTG. However this OPAl genotype was not found to be significantly associated with HTG. Further work did not detect a significant difference in a range of phenotypic features in NTG patients with and without these OPAl polymorphisms, suggesting that these specific genetic variations do not underlie any major phenotypic diversity in NTG. Optineurin (OPTTN), in the GLC1E interval on chromosome 10p, was recently identified as the second gene underlying POAG, with a common mutation, E50K, being found in 13.5% of families, and a M98K variant identified as a significant risk-associated genetic factor for POAG. However when a large panel of 315 sporadic adult POAG subjects were examined for these 2 OPTN sequence variants, the E50K mutation was identified in only 1.5% of NTG subjects, making it an infrequent cause of sporadic NTG. The M98K variant was found to be associated specifically with NTG but not HTG, suggesting allelic heterogeneity between these 2 phenotypes. A characteristic NTG phenotype comprising a young-adult age of onset, advanced visual loss and progressive disease, has been described in individuals carrying the E50K OPTN mutation. Primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) is the main form of glaucoma in East Asian populations. Two large Singaporean PACG families were examined and the first locus for the disease was identified on chromosome 10 using linkage analysis. The disease interval was refined to 5.0 cM on chromosome 10qll flanked by the markers D10S225 and D10S568, with the maximum LOD score of 3.4 at 0=.00 for D10S220. Several genes, GDF10, TIM23, SLC18A3 and ASAH2 were excluded as candidates for this condition. This molecular genetic study of both POAG and PACG has contributed to our knowledge of glaucoma

Markstein numbers and unstretched laminar burning velocities of wet carbon monoxide flames

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76243/1/AIAA-1996-912-255.pd

Timing of antiretroviral therapy and TB treatment outcomes in patients with TB-HIV in Myanmar.

SETTING: Integrated HIV Care programme, Mandalay, Myanmar. OBJECTIVES: To determine time to starting antiretroviral treatment (ART) in relation to anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT) and its association with TB treatment outcomes in patients co-infected with tuberculosis (TB) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) enrolled from 2011 to 2014. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. RESULTS: Of 1708 TB-HIV patients, 1565 (92%) started ATT first and 143 (8%) started ART first. Treatment outcomes were missing for 226 patients and were thus not included. In those starting ATT first, the median time to starting ART was 8.6 weeks. ART was initiated after 8 weeks in 830 (53%) patients. Unsuccessful outcome was found in 7%, with anaemia being an independent predictor. In patients starting ART first, the median time to starting ATT was 21.6 weeks. ATT was initiated within 3 months in 56 (39%) patients. Unsuccessful outcome was found in 12%, and in 20% of those starting ATT within 3 months. Patients with CD4 count <100/mm(3) had a four times higher risk of an unsuccessful outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Timing of ART in relation to ATT was not an independent risk factor for unsuccessful outcome. Extensive screening for TB with rapid and sensitive diagnostic tests in HIV-infected persons and close monitoring of anaemia and immunosuppression are recommended to further improve TB treatment outcomes among patients with TB-HIV

Remote sensing of Earth terrain

Remote sensing of earth terrain is examined. The layered random medium model is used to investigate the fully polarimetric scattering of electromagnetic waves from vegetation. The model is used to interpret the measured data for vegetation fields such as rice, wheat, or soybean over water or soil. Accurate calibration of polarimetric radar systems is essential for the polarimetric remote sensing of earth terrain. A polarimetric calibration algorithm using three arbitrary in-scene reflectors is developed. In the interpretation of active and passive microwave remote sensing data from the earth terrain, the random medium model was shown to be quite successful. A multivariate K-distribution is proposed to model the statistics of fully polarimetric radar returns from earth terrain. In the terrain cover classification using the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, the applications of the K-distribution model will provide better performance than the conventional Gaussian classifiers. The layered random medium model is used to study the polarimetric response of sea ice. Supervised and unsupervised classification procedures are also developed and applied to synthetic aperture radar polarimetric images in order to identify their various earth terrain components for more than two classes. These classification procedures were applied to San Francisco Bay and Traverse City SAR images

Combined genotype and haplotype tests for region-based association studies

10.1186/1471-2164-14-569BMC Genomics141-BGME