Inland waters support the growth of several sectors including mining, agriculture, and health. This makes it crucial to have sustainable quantity and quality through conservation practices. Achieving sustainability re...Inland waters support the growth of several sectors including mining, agriculture, and health. This makes it crucial to have sustainable quantity and quality through conservation practices. Achieving sustainability requires information on the spatial distribution of water bodies. This requirement is particularly critical in low-income nations where dependence on natural resources is a key driver to economic growth. Unfortunately, these nations lack the resources to promote costly waterbody characterization. This study pre-sents a cost-effective approach in assigning Unique Identifiers (UIDs) that define locations and characteristics of rivers and streams. Our objective is to develop a scheme that can be used to identify and characterize rivers and streams in a nation. We utilized an open-source Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of NASA’s ASTER satellite and the hydrology tool in ArcGIS 10.7.1. The DEM was imported to ArcGIS followed by delineation of hydrologic regions, subregions, and stream orders. Each stream segment was given a UID based on its region and Strahler’s stream order system. We present a case study analysis for two regions within Sierra Leone using water quality data of selected rivers and streams. These will lay the foundation for a nationwide coding exercise and provide a useful reference for water resource practitioners.展开更多
Next-generation sequencing data are widely utilised for various downstream applications in bioinformatics and numerous techniques have been developed for PCR-deduplication and error-correction to eliminate bias and er...Next-generation sequencing data are widely utilised for various downstream applications in bioinformatics and numerous techniques have been developed for PCR-deduplication and error-correction to eliminate bias and errors introduced during the sequencing.This study first-time provides a joint overview of recent advances in PCR-deduplication and error-correction on short reads.In particular,we utilise UMI-based PCR-deduplication strategies and sequencing data to assess the performance of the solelycomputational PCR-deduplication approaches and investigate how error correction affects the performance of PCR-deduplication.Our survey and comparative analysis reveal that the deduplicated reads generated by the solely-computational PCR-deduplication and error-correction methods exhibit substantial differences and divergence from the sets of reads obtained by the UMI-based deduplication methods.The existing solelycomputational PCR-deduplication and error-correction tools can eliminate some errors but still leave hundreds of thousands of erroneous reads uncorrected.All the error-correction approaches raise thousands or more new sequences after correction which do not have any benefit to the PCRdeduplication process.Based on our findings,we discuss future research directions and make suggestions for improving existing computational approaches to enhance the quality of short-read sequencing data.展开更多
Objective To analyze the gamma band effective connectiviyty characteristicsof theprefrontal-striatal circuitry in bipolar disorder patients with and without a history of manic episodes,as well as in major depressive d...Objective To analyze the gamma band effective connectiviyty characteristicsof theprefrontal-striatal circuitry in bipolar disorder patients with and without a history of manic episodes,as well as in major depressive disorder patients,during the recognition of positive emotional faces,this study aims to identify unique neurophysiological features that may aid in the early detection of bipolar disorder.Methods This retrospective study collected clinical data and magnetoencephalography(MEG)imaging data from patients performing a positive emotional face recognition task at the Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from May 2009 to December 2019.The study included 75 patients with major depressive disorder and 29 patients with bipolar disorder in a depressive episode(rBD group).Concurrently,39 age-and gender-matched healthy controls(HC group)were recruited.After a follow-up period of at least 5 years,23 out of the 75 patients with major depressive disorder converted to bipolar disorder(ctBD group),while the remaining 52 who did not convert maintained a diagnosis of major depressive disorder.Results There were statistically significant differences in gamma-band effective connectivity in the prefrontal-striatal circuit when recognizing positive emotional faces among the converted to bipolar disorder(ctBD),raw bipolar disorder,major depressive disorder,and HC groups(H=9.04,10.30,8.30,13.43,14.38,12.62,9.82,8.94,24.62,7.89,18.53,9.97,9.58,12.79,P<0.05).The ctBD group,rBD group,and major depressive group all showed reduction in effective connectivity from the right orbital inferior frontal gyrus(ORBinf.R)to the left orbital inferior frontal gyrus(ORBinf.L)[Z=-1.98,-3.38,-2.88],from the right orbital inferior frontal gyrus to the right ventral striatum(VS.R)(Z=-2.05,-2.76,-2.11;P<0.05)and from the left ventral striatum(VS.L)to the left orbital middle frontal gyrus(ORBmid.L)(Z=-2.76,-1.98,-2.43;P<0.05).Among the disease groups,the ctBD group showed significantly enhanced effective connectivity strength compared to the major depressive group from the right amygdala(AMYG.R)to the left orbital inferior frontal gyrus(0.04(0.03,0.08)),from the right amygdala to the left ventral striatum(0.05(0.03,0.09)),and from the right ventral striatum to the right anterior cingulate and paracingulate gyri(ACG.R)(0.04(0.02,0.08))(Z=4.17,3.70,3.35;P<0.001).The ctBD group also exhibited enhanced effective connectivity compared to the rBD group from ORBinf.R to the ACG.R,fron the AMYG.R to the ORBinf.L,from the AMYG.R to the VS.L,and from the VS.R to the ACG.R(Z=2.05,4.61,3.60,3.04;P<0.05).The rBD group demonstrated reduced effective connectivity compared to the major depressive disorder group from the right orbital middle frontal gyrus(ORBmid.R)to the left anterior cingulate and paracingulate gyri(ACG.L),ORBinf.R to the ACG.R and from the ORBinf.R to the AMYG.R(Z=-2.12,-2.40,-2.22;P<0.05).Conclusion There are significant differences in the gamma-band effective connectivity characteristics of the prefrontal-striatal pathway when recognizing positive emotional faces between patients with bipolar disorder in depressive episodes and those with depression,as well as differences between bipolar depressed patients with and without a history of manic episodes.展开更多
文摘Inland waters support the growth of several sectors including mining, agriculture, and health. This makes it crucial to have sustainable quantity and quality through conservation practices. Achieving sustainability requires information on the spatial distribution of water bodies. This requirement is particularly critical in low-income nations where dependence on natural resources is a key driver to economic growth. Unfortunately, these nations lack the resources to promote costly waterbody characterization. This study pre-sents a cost-effective approach in assigning Unique Identifiers (UIDs) that define locations and characteristics of rivers and streams. Our objective is to develop a scheme that can be used to identify and characterize rivers and streams in a nation. We utilized an open-source Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of NASA’s ASTER satellite and the hydrology tool in ArcGIS 10.7.1. The DEM was imported to ArcGIS followed by delineation of hydrologic regions, subregions, and stream orders. Each stream segment was given a UID based on its region and Strahler’s stream order system. We present a case study analysis for two regions within Sierra Leone using water quality data of selected rivers and streams. These will lay the foundation for a nationwide coding exercise and provide a useful reference for water resource practitioners.
文摘Next-generation sequencing data are widely utilised for various downstream applications in bioinformatics and numerous techniques have been developed for PCR-deduplication and error-correction to eliminate bias and errors introduced during the sequencing.This study first-time provides a joint overview of recent advances in PCR-deduplication and error-correction on short reads.In particular,we utilise UMI-based PCR-deduplication strategies and sequencing data to assess the performance of the solelycomputational PCR-deduplication approaches and investigate how error correction affects the performance of PCR-deduplication.Our survey and comparative analysis reveal that the deduplicated reads generated by the solely-computational PCR-deduplication and error-correction methods exhibit substantial differences and divergence from the sets of reads obtained by the UMI-based deduplication methods.The existing solelycomputational PCR-deduplication and error-correction tools can eliminate some errors but still leave hundreds of thousands of erroneous reads uncorrected.All the error-correction approaches raise thousands or more new sequences after correction which do not have any benefit to the PCRdeduplication process.Based on our findings,we discuss future research directions and make suggestions for improving existing computational approaches to enhance the quality of short-read sequencing data.
文摘Objective To analyze the gamma band effective connectiviyty characteristicsof theprefrontal-striatal circuitry in bipolar disorder patients with and without a history of manic episodes,as well as in major depressive disorder patients,during the recognition of positive emotional faces,this study aims to identify unique neurophysiological features that may aid in the early detection of bipolar disorder.Methods This retrospective study collected clinical data and magnetoencephalography(MEG)imaging data from patients performing a positive emotional face recognition task at the Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from May 2009 to December 2019.The study included 75 patients with major depressive disorder and 29 patients with bipolar disorder in a depressive episode(rBD group).Concurrently,39 age-and gender-matched healthy controls(HC group)were recruited.After a follow-up period of at least 5 years,23 out of the 75 patients with major depressive disorder converted to bipolar disorder(ctBD group),while the remaining 52 who did not convert maintained a diagnosis of major depressive disorder.Results There were statistically significant differences in gamma-band effective connectivity in the prefrontal-striatal circuit when recognizing positive emotional faces among the converted to bipolar disorder(ctBD),raw bipolar disorder,major depressive disorder,and HC groups(H=9.04,10.30,8.30,13.43,14.38,12.62,9.82,8.94,24.62,7.89,18.53,9.97,9.58,12.79,P<0.05).The ctBD group,rBD group,and major depressive group all showed reduction in effective connectivity from the right orbital inferior frontal gyrus(ORBinf.R)to the left orbital inferior frontal gyrus(ORBinf.L)[Z=-1.98,-3.38,-2.88],from the right orbital inferior frontal gyrus to the right ventral striatum(VS.R)(Z=-2.05,-2.76,-2.11;P<0.05)and from the left ventral striatum(VS.L)to the left orbital middle frontal gyrus(ORBmid.L)(Z=-2.76,-1.98,-2.43;P<0.05).Among the disease groups,the ctBD group showed significantly enhanced effective connectivity strength compared to the major depressive group from the right amygdala(AMYG.R)to the left orbital inferior frontal gyrus(0.04(0.03,0.08)),from the right amygdala to the left ventral striatum(0.05(0.03,0.09)),and from the right ventral striatum to the right anterior cingulate and paracingulate gyri(ACG.R)(0.04(0.02,0.08))(Z=4.17,3.70,3.35;P<0.001).The ctBD group also exhibited enhanced effective connectivity compared to the rBD group from ORBinf.R to the ACG.R,fron the AMYG.R to the ORBinf.L,from the AMYG.R to the VS.L,and from the VS.R to the ACG.R(Z=2.05,4.61,3.60,3.04;P<0.05).The rBD group demonstrated reduced effective connectivity compared to the major depressive disorder group from the right orbital middle frontal gyrus(ORBmid.R)to the left anterior cingulate and paracingulate gyri(ACG.L),ORBinf.R to the ACG.R and from the ORBinf.R to the AMYG.R(Z=-2.12,-2.40,-2.22;P<0.05).Conclusion There are significant differences in the gamma-band effective connectivity characteristics of the prefrontal-striatal pathway when recognizing positive emotional faces between patients with bipolar disorder in depressive episodes and those with depression,as well as differences between bipolar depressed patients with and without a history of manic episodes.
