Search

In planning and reviewing changes in the ground overview data, land distribution guidelines and identification of changes are critical. The availability of free global and historical satellite images offers a valuable resource for the built-up region to be continuously and accurately mapped and tracked year by year. For thirty years of data, this study uses Landsat images to obtain substantial and land spread data that is extremely useful for urban arrangement. This paper mainly focuses on the basic extraction of the built-up area for the urban planning area every five years from the satellite images of LANDSAT 5,7,8 and Sentinel 2A from USGS. The goal is to evaluate the year-by-year shift in the urban built-up area and to obtain the accuracy of the mapping of built-up and bare land areas in the study of the urban built-up trend from 1990 to 2020. In this research, GIS tools such as raster calculator and built-up region modeling are used to measure the indices that include the Enhanced Built-up and Bareness Index (EBBI), the Normalized Difference Builtup Index (NDBI) and the Urban Index (UI) or the Built-up Index (BUI). This study will therefore point out a variable approach to mapping traditional enhanced built-up and bare land changes (EBBI) automatically with simple indices and according to index outputs. The uncoordinated areas of land and population urbanization spread from areas and gradually the link between the expansion of urban land development and population growth has moved from weak positive to strong decoupling. The advantage of the method the enhanced built-up and bareness index (EBBI) can therefore be realized with the correlation of linear regression slightly expanded in 2020 over the last thirty years. The percentage of the outputs between the indexes and population rate was to use the entire spectral range of Landsat imageries which cause less spectral confusion between built-up area changes and higher accuracies compared to other indices. The modelling method was effective, quickly simple to implement, and can be used to find out the built-up area extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We construct Villain Hamiltonians for compact scalars and abelian gauge theories. The Villain integers are promoted to integral spectrum operators, whose canonical conjugates are naturally compact scalars. Further, depending on the theory, these conjugate operators can be interpreted as (higher-form) gauge fields. If a gauge symmetry is imposed on these dual gauge fields, a natural constraint on the Villain operator leads to the absence of defects (e.g. vortices, monopoles,…). These lattice models therefore have the same symmetry and anomaly structure as their corresponding continuum models. Moreover they can be formulated in a way that makes the well-know dualities look manifest, e.g. a compact scalar in 2d has a T-duality, in 3d is dual to a U(1) gauge theory, etc. We further discuss the gauged version of compact scalars on the lattice, its anomalies and solution, as well as a particular limit of the gauged XY model at strong coupling which reduces to the transverse-field Ising model. The construction for higher-form gauge theories is similar. We apply these ideas to the constructions of some models which are of interest to fracton physics, in particular the XY-plaquette model and the tensor gauge field model. The XY-plaquette model in 2+1d coupled to a tensor gauge fields at strong gauge coupling is also exactly described by a transverse field quantum J 1 − J 2 Ising model with J 1 = 2J 2, and discuss the phase structure of such models.

This study shows that the long-term persistence of pain in SJS/TEN patients cannot be explained by the presence of small fibre neuropathy as assessed by usual diagnostic tools. In this retrospective monocentric study (2011-2019), we collected the data of all SJS/TEN patients who have been investigated in our Clinical Neurophysiology Unit (Henri Mondor hospital) for the evaluation of persistent pain. Chronic pain syndrome is a long-term sequela that affects more than a third of patients with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) or toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN).1 The pathophysiology of pain is not known in this context, but could involve the small-diameter nociceptive nerve fibres of which axonal endings (including the nociceptors) are located in the epidermis. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are associated with various sequelae. Chronic pain, one of these sequelae, has never been systematically evaluated. Objectives and methods: To assess the persistence of pain in a single‐centre cohort of 113 consecutive patients with SJS/TEN. From this cohort, 81 patients were interviewed more than 1 year after the initial episode and included in the study. Data were collected according to standardized questionnaires. Results: From the 81 interviewed patients, 52 patients (64%) were painless and 29 patients (36%) were painful. Chronic pain syndrome was associated with a more severe initial acute phase of the disease (larger extent of detachment, higher SCORTEN, increased rate of admission in ICU and complications, and longer hospital stay). Pain was mainly located at the level of eyes (55%), mouth and lower limbs (38–41%), with a moderate daily intensity on average (4.7/10). The 'affective' descriptors prevailed over the 'sensory' descriptors, with the exception of burning and itching sensations. Finally, regarding provoked pain, mechanical allodynia (to brushing and pressure) was more marked than thermal allodynia. Discussion: The persistence of chronic pain after SJS/TEN is a common phenomenon. Sensory descriptors are consistent with sensitization of both small‐diameter nerve fibres (burning and itching sensations) and large‐diameter nerve fibres (mechanical allodynia), but the affective‐emotional components of pain largely predominate. Conclusions: Complex mechanisms lead to persistent pain as long‐term sequela of SJS/TEN, among which mechanisms, psychological factors related to post‐traumatic stress disorder probably play a key role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In nature, bacteria prevailingly reside in the form of biofilms. These elaborately organized surface-bound assemblages of bacterial cells show numerous features of multicellular organization. We recently showed that biofilm growth is a true developmental process, which resembles developmental processes in multicellular eukaryotes. To study the biofilm growth in a fashion of eukaryotic ontogeny, it is essential to define dynamics and critical transitional phases of this process. The first step in this endeavor is to record the gross morphological changes of biofilm ontogeny under standardized conditions. This visual information is instrumental in guiding the sampling strategy for the later omics analyses of biofilm ontogeny. However, none of the currently available visualizations methods is specifically tailored for recording gross morphology across the whole biofilm development. To address this void, here we present an affordable Arduino-based approach for time-lapse visualization of complete biofilm ontogeny using bright field stereomicroscopy with episcopic illumination. The major challenge in recording biofilm development on the air–solid interphase is water condensation, which compromises filming directly through the lid of a Petri dish. To overcome these trade-offs, we developed an Arduino microcontroller setup which synchronizes a robotic arm, responsible for opening and closing the Petri dish lid, with the activity of a stereomicroscope-mounted camera and lighting conditions. We placed this setup into a microbiological incubator that maintains temperature and humidity during the biofilm growth. As a proof-of-principle, we recorded biofilm development of five Bacillus subtilis strains that show different morphological and developmental dynamics.

Background: Mobile app has been used to improve exercise adherence and outcomes in populations with different health conditions. However, the effectiveness of mobile app in delivering home-based rehabilitation program to elderly patients with hip fracture is unclear. Objective: The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of mobile app in delivering home-based rehabilitation program for improving functional outcomes and reducing caregiver stress with enhancing adherence among the elderly patients with hip fracture. Methods: A randomized controlled trial with an intervention period of two months was performed. Eligible participants were randomized into either experimental group with home-based rehabilitation program using a mobile app or control group with home-based rehabilitation program using an exercise pamphlet. Primary outcomes were Modified Functional Ambulatory Category (MFAC), Elderly Mobility Scale (EMS) and Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS). Secondary outcomes were exercise adherence and Modified Caregiver Strain Index (M-CSI). The outcomes were collected at pre-discharge training session, one month and two months after hospital discharge. Results: A total of 50 participants were enrolled, with 19 participants in the experimental group and 20 participants in the control group. Eleven participants had withdrawn from the study. The experimental group showed higher exercise adherence than the control group in first month ([Formula: see text]). There were no between-group differences in MFAC, EMS, LEFS and M-CSI at the first month and second month. Conclusion: Use of the mobile app improved exercise adherence, yet it did not improve physical performance, self-efficacy and reduce caregiver stress when compared to a standard home rehabilitation program for elderly patients with hip fracture. Further studies to investigate the benefits of mobile apps are required. (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04053348.)

Many studies have documented the missing relationship between PCE inflation and the labor market slack in the last 20 years. This paper first presents evidence of a strong sensitivity of price inflation to labor market tightness once we remove the late 90s from our sample and account for the Phillips curve’s endogeneity and nonlinearity. However, the Phillips curve can neither explain nor forecast the Core PCE inflation rate since 1995. This shortcoming is of great concern, given that the Fed utilizes the Core PCE as its primary tool to measure inflation and formulate its monetary policy. Second, we propose the Underlying Inflation Gauge (UIG) and the Median CPI to measure inflation better. We show that the Convex Phillips curve successfully explains and forecasts more than 90% of the UIG inflation movements from 1995:05 to 2019:03