COMPARISON OF LANDSAT-9 AND PRISMA SATELLITE DATA FOR LAND USE / LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION

Land use and land cover (LU/LC) detection has great significance in management of natural resources and protection of environment. Hence, monitoring LU/LC with the state-of-the-art approaches has gained importance during the recent years and free access satellite images have become valuable data source. The aim of this study is to compare classification abilities of Landsat-9 and PRISMA satellite images while applying Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm to distinguish different LU/LC classes. For this purpose, the study area was chosen to be of heterogeneous character that includes industrial area, roads, residential area, airport, sea, forest, vegetation and barren land. When the classification results were visually examined, it was seen that forest, industrial area and airport classes were distinguished more accurately than other classes. On the other hand, qualitative results were validated with quantitative accuracy assessment results. The overall accuracy (OA) and Kappa coefficient values were calculated as 89.33 and 0.88 for Landsat-9 satellite image and as 92.33 and 0.91 for the PRISMA satellite image, respectively. In the accuracy assessment results, although Landsat-9 and PRISMA satellite images showed similar classification performances, a slight improvement was observed by using the PRISMA satellite image. The findings indicated that although both of the Landsat-9 and PRISMA satellite images were proper data to assess the LU/LC of the complex region, a slightly more performance could be achieved by using the PRISMA satellite image

A comprehensive review of the PARTNER trial

ObjectivePercutaneous transcatheter aortic valve replacement was introduced in 2002, but its effectiveness remained to be assessed.MethodsA prospective, randomized trial (the Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves, or PARTNER) was designed with 2 arms: PARTNER A (n = 699) for high-risk surgical patients (Society of Thoracic Surgeons score >10%, surgeon assessed risk of mortality >15%) and PARTNER B (n = 358, patients inoperable by assessment of 2 surgeons). PARTNER A patients were divided into femoral artery access transcatheter aortic valve replacement or none (n = 207), and then randomized to open aortic valve replacement (n = 351) or device (n = 348). Inclusion criteria included valve area <0.8 cm2, gradient >40 mm Hg or peak >64 mm Hg, and survival >1 year. The end point of the study was 1-year mortality.ResultsThirty-day mortality for PARTNER A was 3.4% for transcatheter aortic valve replacement and 6.5% for aortic valve replacement; 1-year mortality was 24.2% and 26.8%, respectively (P = .001 for noninferiority). The respective prevalence of stroke was 3.8% and 2.1% (P = .2), although for all neurologic events, the difference between transcatheter aortic valve replacement and aortic valve replacement was significant (P = .04), including 4.6% for femoral artery access transcatheter aortic valve replacement versus 1.4% for open aortic valve replacement (P = .05). For PARTNER B—transcatheter aortic valve replacement versus medical treatment—30-day mortality was 5.0% versus 2.8% (P = .41), and at 1 year, mortality was 30.7% versus 50.7% (P < .001), respectively. Hospitalization cost of transcatheter aortic valve replacement for PARTNER B was $78,542, or$50,200 per year of life gained. Analysis of PARTNER A strokes showed that hazard with transcatheter aortic valve replacement peaked early, but thereafter remained constant in relation to aortic valve replacement. Two-year PARTNER A data showed paravalvular regurgitation was associated with increased mortality, even when mild (P < .001). Continued access to transapical transcatheter aortic valve replacement (n = 853) showed a mortality of 8.2% and decline in strokes to 2.0%. Of the 1801 Cleveland Clinic patients reviewed to December 2010, 214 (12%) underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement with a mortality of 1%; in 2011, 105 underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement: 34 transapical aortic valve replacement, with no deaths, and 71 femoral artery access aortic valve replacement with 1 death.ConclusionsThe PARTNER A and B trials showed that survival has been remarkably good, but stroke and perivalvular leakage require further device development

Myocardial ischemic-fibrotic injury after human heart transplantation is associated with increased progression of vasculopathy, decreased cellular rejection and poor long-term outcome

AbstractObjectivesWe sought to assess the influence of peritransplant ischemia and fibrosis on the development of allograft vasculopathy, acute cellular rejection and long-term outcome.BackgroundAllograft vasculopathy is a common long-term complication of cardiac transplantation. One of the potential risk factors is peritransplant allograft ischemia.MethodsOne hundred forty heart transplant recipients had baseline and one-year intravascular ultrasound analysis done to assess the progression of allograft vasculopathy. Serial endomyocardial biopsies were evaluated for cellular rejection, vascular rejection, ischemia and fibrosis. Based on histology, patients were classified into one of the following groups: nonischemic (n = 32), ischemia (n = 24), fibrosis (n = 62) or vascular rejection (n = 22). Three-color flow cytometry crossmatching (FCXM) was used to assess donor-specific human lymphocyte antigens (HLA) sensitization. Long-term outcome of patients in each group was assessed by estimating incidence of graft failure or deaths over a seven-year follow up.ResultsPatients in the fibrosis group had the lowest incidence of donor-specific HLA sensitization (40%, p = 0.008) and lowest average episodes of cellular rejection (1.7 ± 1.4, p = 0.04), but they had increased coronary vasculopathy progression (change in coronary intimal thickness = 0.59 ± 0.28 mm, p < 0.0001) and poor seven-year event-free survival (49%, p = 0.01).ConclusionsThe development of fibrosis after cardiac transplantation is associated with advanced coronary vasculopathy, although a low incidence of acute cellular rejection is noted, suggesting the presence of nonimmune mechanisms in mediating the pathogenesis of allograft vasculopathy

Assessment of imidacloprid toxicity on reproductive organ system of adult male rats

In the current study it was aimed to investigate the toxicity of low doses of imidacloprid (IMI) on the reproductive organ systems of adult male rats. The treatment groups received 0.5 (IMI-0.5), 2 (IMI-2) or 8 mg IMI/kg body weight by oral gavage (IMI-8) for three months. The deterioration in sperm motility in IMI-8 group and epidydimal sperm concentration in IMI-2 and IMI-8 groups and abnormality in sperm morphology in IMI-8 were significant. The levels of testosterone (T) and GSH decreased significantly in group IMI-8 compared to the control group. Upon treatment with IMI, apoptotic index increased significantly only in germ cells of the seminiferous tubules of IMI-8 group when compared to control. Fragmentation was striking in the seminal DNA from the IMI-8 group, but it was much less obvious in the IMI-2 one. IMI exposure resulted in elevation of all fatty acids analyzed, but the increases were significant only in stearic, oleic, linoleic and arachidonic acids. The ratios of 20:4/20:3 and 20:4/18:2 were decreased and 16:1n-9/16:0 ratio was increased. In conclusion, the present animal experiments revealed that the treatment with IMI at NOAEL dose-levels caused deterioration in sperm parameters, decreased T level, increased apoptosis of germ cells, seminal DNA fragmentation, the depletion of antioxidants and change in disturbance of fatty acid composition. All these changes indicate the suppression of testicular function

Naming the pain in requirements engineering : Contemporary problems, causes, and effects in practice

Requirements Engineering (RE) has received much attention in research and practice due to its importance to software project success. Its interdisciplinary nature, the dependency to the customer, and its inherent uncertainty still render the discipline difficult to investigate. This results in a lack of empirical data. These are necessary, however, to demonstrate which practically relevant RE problems exist and to what extent they matter. Motivated by this situation, we initiated the Naming the Pain in Requirements Engineering (NaPiRE) initiative which constitutes a globally distributed, bi-yearly replicated family of surveys on the status quo and problems in practical RE. In this article, we report on the qualitative analysis of data obtained from 228 companies working in 10 countries in various domains and we reveal which contemporary problems practitioners encounter. To this end, we analyse 21 problems derived from the literature with respect to their relevance and criticality in dependency to their context, and we complement this picture with a cause-effect analysis showing the causes and effects surrounding the most critical problems. Our results give us a better understanding of which problems exist and how they manifest themselves in practical environments. Thus, we provide a first step to ground contributions to RE on empirical observations which, until now, were dominated by conventional wisdom only.Peer reviewe

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

SummaryBackground The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 provides an up-to-date synthesis of the evidence for risk factor exposure and the attributable burden of disease. By providing national and subnational assessments spanning the past 25 years, this study can inform debates on the importance of addressing risks in context. Methods We used the comparative risk assessment framework developed for previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease Study to estimate attributable deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and trends in exposure by age group, sex, year, and geography for 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks from 1990 to 2015. This study included 388 risk-outcome pairs that met World Cancer Research Fund-defined criteria for convincing or probable evidence. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from randomised controlled trials, cohorts, pooled cohorts, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. We developed a metric that allows comparisons of exposure across risk factors—the summary exposure value. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk level, we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We decomposed trends in attributable burden into contributions from population growth, population age structure, risk exposure, and risk-deleted cause-specific DALY rates. We characterised risk exposure in relation to a Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Findings Between 1990 and 2015, global exposure to unsafe sanitation, household air pollution, childhood underweight, childhood stunting, and smoking each decreased by more than 25%. Global exposure for several occupational risks, high body-mass index (BMI), and drug use increased by more than 25% over the same period. All risks jointly evaluated in 2015 accounted for 57·8% (95% CI 56·6–58·8) of global deaths and 41·2% (39·8–42·8) of DALYs. In 2015, the ten largest contributors to global DALYs among Level 3 risks were high systolic blood pressure (211·8 million [192·7 million to 231·1 million] global DALYs), smoking (148·6 million [134·2 million to 163·1 million]), high fasting plasma glucose (143·1 million [125·1 million to 163·5 million]), high BMI (120·1 million [83·8 million to 158·4 million]), childhood undernutrition (113·3 million [103·9 million to 123·4 million]), ambient particulate matter (103·1 million [90·8 million to 115·1 million]), high total cholesterol (88·7 million [74·6 million to 105·7 million]), household air pollution (85·6 million [66·7 million to 106·1 million]), alcohol use (85·0 million [77·2 million to 93·0 million]), and diets high in sodium (83·0 million [49·3 million to 127·5 million]). From 1990 to 2015, attributable DALYs declined for micronutrient deficiencies, childhood undernutrition, unsafe sanitation and water, and household air pollution; reductions in risk-deleted DALY rates rather than reductions in exposure drove these declines. Rising exposure contributed to notable increases in attributable DALYs from high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, occupational carcinogens, and drug use. Environmental risks and childhood undernutrition declined steadily with SDI; low physical activity, high BMI, and high fasting plasma glucose increased with SDI. In 119 countries, metabolic risks, such as high BMI and fasting plasma glucose, contributed the most attributable DALYs in 2015. Regionally, smoking still ranked among the leading five risk factors for attributable DALYs in 109 countries; childhood underweight and unsafe sex remained primary drivers of early death and disability in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation Declines in some key environmental risks have contributed to declines in critical infectious diseases. Some risks appear to be invariant to SDI. Increasing risks, including high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, drug use, and some occupational exposures, contribute to rising burden from some conditions, but also provide opportunities for intervention. Some highly preventable risks, such as smoking, remain major causes of attributable DALYs, even as exposure is declining. Public policy makers need to pay attention to the risks that are increasingly major contributors to global burden. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation