The climate of the Canary Islands by annual cycle parameters

Annual cycle parameters (ACP) provide a global climatology of annual land surface temperature (LST) based on daily 1 km MODIS observations. These are based on a simple model of the annual temperature cycle and allow estimating LST patterns under largely cloud-free conditions for every day of year. Further, they deliver measures for the LST variability and the frequency of cloud occurrence. It has been demonstrated, that they reproduce important surface climate characteristics at global and urban scale but their ability to reproduce topo-climates has yet to be studied in detail. In this paper their suitability to investigate climatic variability at km scale were studied at the case of the Canary Islands (Spain). This Archipelago, has a very stable climate dominated by the Azores high and the trade wind belt, but shows a large number of micro-climates ranging from arid hot climates to cold climates. It was found that ACPs are a relevant source of climatic information at km scale in complex orography. Specifically, known features such as subsidence inversion, the resulting sea of clouds, the strong differentiation in precipitation between the flat and high islands, as well as the northern and southern slopes at the latter were clearly visible in the parameters

PARTICIPATION AND OBSERVATION IN THE MENTAL HOSPITAL

http://web.ku.edu/~starjrn

Development of the MediBeacon transdermal GFR measurement system

Current methods of kidney function monitoring, based on plasma creatinine concentration, suffer from poor accuracy, lack of sensitivity, and potentially long delay times (24-72 hrs) before detecting acute kidney injury. A kidney function monitor is being developed by MediBeacon, based on transdermally measured fluorescence clearance of the novel fluorescent tracer agent, MB-102. After vascular injection, the agent equilibrates into the extracellular spaces of the body and is cleared exclusively by the kidneys, without being metabolized. Plasma pharmacokinetic (PK) analysis of MB-102 compared to the known GFR agent, iohexol, across subjects with a wide range of chronic kidney disease states, has demonstrated the close equivalence (R2=0.99) of the GFR derived by the two methods. Transdermal monitoring is accomplished using blue (peak ~450 nm) LED excitation to induce green (peak ~560 nm) fluorescence of MB-102. In a pilot study, the full day fluorescent decay kinetics of MB-102 were shown to be directly related to body-size normalized GFR (tGFR). Achieving accurate GFR assessment from shorter time segments is a primary goal, in order to provide near real-time monitoring of kidney function, for example in hospital intensive care units (ICU). The primary interferents to the tGFR measurement are hemoglobin, melanin, and tissue autofluorescence. The focus of the talk will be on the development of several generations of instruments designed to address these challenges, and their performance during clinical studies to date. Business and regulatory challenges faced along the path toward commercialization of this combination device and agent, will also be briefly described. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Vibrational exciton nanoimaging of phases and domains in porphyrin nanocrystals.

Much of the electronic transport, photophysical, or biological functions of molecular materials emerge from intermolecular interactions and associated nanoscale structure and morphology. However, competing phases, defects, and disorder give rise to confinement and many-body localization of the associated wavefunction, disturbing the performance of the material. Here, we employ vibrational excitons as a sensitive local probe of intermolecular coupling in hyperspectral infrared scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy (IR s-SNOM) with complementary small-angle X-ray scattering to map multiscale structure from molecular coupling to long-range order. In the model organic electronic material octaethyl porphyrin ruthenium(II) carbonyl (RuOEP), we observe the evolution of competing ordered and disordered phases, in nucleation, growth, and ripening of porphyrin nanocrystals. From measurement of vibrational exciton delocalization, we identify coexistence of ordered and disordered phases in RuOEP that extend down to the molecular scale. Even when reaching a high degree of macroscopic crystallinity, identify significant local disorder with correlation lengths of only a few nanometers. This minimally invasive approach of vibrational exciton nanospectroscopy and -imaging is generally applicable to provide the molecular-level insight into photoresponse and energy transport in organic photovoltaics, electronics, or proteins

A 1000 hour endurance test of a glass-coated accelerator grid on a 15-centimeter-diameter Kaufman thruster

Endurance test of glass coated accelerator grid on 15-centimeter-diameter Kaufman thruste

Preparation of Cereals and Grain Products for Transmission Electron Microscopy

This tutorial specifically addresses the techniques used in the processing of cereals and grain products for various aspects of transmission electron microscopy. Methods covered include sample treatment, chemical and physical fixation, dehydration, embedding, sectioning techniques, immunocytochemistry, enzymatic digestions, carbohydrate localization, and lectin binding. The primary goal is to provide information on the preparation of cereals and cereal-based products for microscopic analysis and to assist the reader in solving technical problems associated with studying cereals or other difficult-to-prepare samples

THE SEARCH FOR THE OPTIMAL ENVIRONMENT

O autor propõe o amor como o responsável pelo ambiente ótimo, indicando isso não ter sido visto pela psicologia. Descreve alguns resultados obtidos em pesquisas a partir de psicoterapias, do tratamento da delinqüência juvenil, do tratamento e prevenção da doença cardíaca e do ambiente de trabalho. Cada um destes estudos representa uma série de diversos ambientes onde uma classificação mais abrangente de amor - como um aspecto suportivo e afirmativo de qualquer ambiente social - elucidaria a sua importância para a psicologia ambiental. Finaliza manifestando o desejo de que o “Fator Amor” venha a ser considerado o mais importante comportamento a ser mensurado em todo e qualquer ambiente.The author proposes that love is responsible for the optimal environment, indicating that this has not been studied by Environmental Psychology. He describes some results obtained inresearch based on psychotherapy, on treatment of juvenile delinquency, on treatment and prevention of heart disease and on work environment. Each one of these studies represents a series of diverse environments where a broader classification of love – as a supportive and affirmative aspect of any social environment – would elucidate its importance to Environmental Psychology. He concludesthe article manifesting his wish that the “Love Factor” comes to be considered as the most important behavior to be measured in any and every environment

Contributing to WUDAPT: A Local Climate Zone Classification of Two Cities in Ukraine

Local climate zones (LCZs) divide the urban landscape into homogeneous types based on urban structure (i.e.,morphology of streets and buildings), urban cover (i.e., permeability of surfaces), construction materials, and human activities (i.e., anthropogenic heat). This classification scheme represents a standardized way of capturing the basic urban form of cities and is currently being applied globally as part of the world urban database and portal tools (WUDAPT) initiative. This paper assesses the transferability of the LCZ concept to two Ukrainian cities, i.e., Kyiv and Lviv, which differ in urban form and topography, and considers three ways to validate and verify this classification scheme. An accuracy of 64% was achieved for Kyiv using an independent validation dataset while a comparison of the LCZ maps with the GlobeLand30 land cover map resulted in a match that was greater than 75% for both cities. There was also good correspondence between the urban classes in the LCZ maps and the urban points of interest in OpenStreetMap (OSM). However, further research is still required to produce a standardized validation protocol that could be used on a regular basis by contributors to WUDAPT to help produce more accurate LCZ maps in the future