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The surge in urbanization and industrialization is majorly contributing to ambient air pollution, predominantly in terms of particulate emissions. Human health is highly susceptible to the particles suspended in the air due to their lightweight and small size (≤ 2.5 μm), called atmospheric aerosols. In India, insufficient ground-based instruments hinder continuous aerosol monitoring. However, remote sensing offers earth imagery for in-depth analysis of air quality and weather parameters. In the present study, an attempt is made to retrieve the high-resolution (30 m) AOT using Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (L8-OLI) imagery for Pune, Maharashtra, from the years 2014 to 2021. For the atmospheric corrections and better spatiotemporal resolution, the dark target spectrum-based Image Corrections for Atmospheric Effects (iCOR) algorithm was executed. The year 2021 showed the highest mean AOT value at the Pashan location (18.537° N, 73.805° E) in Pune, India. Also, seasonal analysis (winter and summer) indicates that the mean AOT in the winter gradually increases every year. The AOT retrieved using L8-OLI with iCOR and AOT retrieved from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) in situ monitoring station (± 30 min) at 440 nm showed R2 = 0.76, r = 0.83, and RMSE = 0.1012. From this, it is summarized that for L8-OLI images, the iCOR algorithm performs well for the atmospheric correction by retrieving AOT at high spatial resolution with minimum cloud cover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Transgender people, those whose gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth, face barriers to receiving health care. These include discrimination, prohibitive cost, and difficulty finding transgender-inclusive providers. As transgender identities are not typically recognized in public health research, the ability to compare the health of the transgender population to the overall population is limited.Objective: The Colorado Transgender Health Survey sought to explore current disparities and their effects on the health of transgender people in Colorado.Design and Participants: The Colorado Transgender Health Survey, based on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), was developed by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, transgender advocates, and transgender community members. Outreach was targeted to transgender-inclusive events and organizations.Main Measures: Responses to the 2014 Colorado Transgender Health Survey were compared side by side to Colorado 2014 BRFSS data.Results: Results from 406 transgender or gender-nonconforming adults who live in Colorado were included in the analysis. Forty percent of respondents report delaying medical care due to cost, inadequate insurance, and/or fear of discrimination. Respondents report significant mental health concerns, with 43% reporting depression, 36% reporting suicidal thoughts, and 10% attempting suicide in the past year. Respondents with a transgender-inclusive provider were more likely to receive wellness exams (76 versus 48%), less likely to delay care due to discrimination (24 versus 42%), less depressed (38 versus 54%), and less likely to attempt suicide (7 versus 15%) than those without.Conclusions: The transgender community in Colorado faces significant disparities, especially around mental health. However, a transgender-inclusive provider is associated with improved mental and physical health and health behaviors. Further population-level research and provider education on transgender health should to be incorporated into national efforts to eliminate health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a class of infinite graphic matroids that contains all the motivating examples and satisfies an extension of Tutte’s excluded minors characterisation of finite graphic matroids.We prove that its members can be represented by certain ‘graph-like’ topological spaces previously considered by Thomassen and Vella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate prediction of meteorological parameters is a challenging task due to dynamic nature of atmosphere. It has drawn a lot of research potential. Among this, temperature prediction has prominent applications in many important sectors like agriculture, vegetation, water resources, tourism, energy, aviation, etc. Temperature prediction is quite complex in ambient atmosphere, and stochastic models have the limitations of not able to learn the nonlinear relationships between the considered variables. The fuzzy logic can express uncertain and inaccurate information without involvement of physical processes. An attempt is made in this paper to present a k-means clustering approach for future temperature prediction using fuzzy logic. The database of maximum temperature, corresponding M.S.L. pressure, relative humidity, wind speed and historical temperature are utilized to develop a prediction methodology in fuzzy rule base domain to estimate next day maximum temperature for Mumbai, India, in the study. Clusters of input and output parameters are made using k-means clustering, and based on this, fuzzy knowledge base is prepared for prediction of temperature. The model is able to predict the temperature with lower prediction errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we show that lobbying in conditions of “direct democracy” is virtually impossible, even in conditions of complete information about voters’ preferences, since it would require solving a very computationally hard problem. We use the apparatus of parametrized complexity for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. To evaluate the pulmonary distribution of CGP69846A (ISIS 5132), a phosphorothioate oligonucleotide, following intra-tracheal (i.t.) instillation into Brown-Norway rats. Methods. The pharmacokinetic profile of [3H]-CGP69846A was investigated following i.t. instillation into both naïve and inflamed airways of Brown-Norway rats. The cellular distribution was determined using autoradiography, immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry/fluorescence microscopy, in inflamed airways. Results. CGP69846A displayed a dose-dependent lung retention following i.t. administration which was unaffected by local inflammation. Autoradiography and immunohistochemistry showed distribution to alveolar macrophages, eosinophils, bronchial and tracheal epithelium and alveolar cells. Studies with [FITCJ-CGP69846A demonstrated a preferential association of oligonucleotide with leukocytes in bronchial lavage fluid of: macrophages > eosinophils = neutrophils > > lymphocytes. Conclusions. The dose-dependency of lung retention together with cell-specific uptake suggests that the lung can be used as a local target for antisense molecules with potentially minimal systemic effects. Furthermore, the preferential targeting of macrophages and the airway epithelium by oligonucleotides may represent rational cellular targets for antisense therapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]