Leveraging Deep Neural Networks to Map Caribou Lichen in High-Resolution Satellite Images Based on a Small-Scale, Noisy UAV-Derived Map

Lichen is an important food source for caribou in Canada. Lichen mapping using remote sensing (RS) images could be a challenging task, however, as lichens generally appear in unevenly distributed, small patches, and could resemble surficial features. Moreover, collecting lichen labeled data (reference data) is expensive, which restricts the application of many robust supervised classification models that generally demand a large quantity of labeled data. The goal of this study was to investigate the potential of using a very-high-spatial resolution (1-cm) lichen map of a small sample site (e.g., generated based on a single UAV scene and using field data) to train a subsequent classifier to map caribou lichen over a much larger area (~0.04 km2 vs. ~195 km2) and a lower spatial resolution image (in this case, a 50-cm WorldView-2 image). The limited labeled data from the sample site were also partially noisy due to spatial and temporal mismatching issues. For this, we deployed a recently proposed Teacher-Student semi-supervised learning (SSL) approach (based on U-Net and U-Net++ networks) involving unlabeled data to assist with improving the model performance. Our experiments showed that it was possible to scale-up the UAV-derived lichen map to the WorldView-2 scale with reasonable accuracy (overall accuracy of 85.28% and F1-socre of 84.38%) without collecting any samples directly in the WorldView-2 scene. We also found that our noisy labels were partially beneficial to the SSL robustness because they improved the false positive rate compared to the use of a cleaner training set directly collected within the same area in the WorldView-2 image. As a result, this research opens new insights into how current very high-resolution, small-scale caribou lichen maps can be used for generating more accurate large-scale caribou lichen maps from high-resolution satellite imagery.

Characterizing and Evaluating the Diverse Microbial Communities and Their Mercury Resistance Potential from Hot Spring Sites Representing Gradients in Temperature and pH in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is home to many different hot springs, lakes, geysers, pools, and basins that range in pH, chemical composition, and temperature. These different environmental variations provide a broad range of conditions that select and grow diverse communities of microorganisms. In this study, we collected samples from geochemically diverse lakes and springs to characterize the microbial communities present through 16S rRNA metagenomic analysis. This information was then used to observe how various microorganisms survive in high mercury environments. The results show the presence of microorganisms that have been studied in previous literature. The results also depict gradients of microorganisms including thermophilic bacteria and archaea that exist in these extreme environments. In addition, beta diversity analyses of the sequence data showed site clustering based primarily on temperature instead of pH or sample site, suggesting that while pH, temperature, and sample site were all shown to be significant, temperature is the strongest factor driving microorganism community development. While it is important to characterize the microorganism community present, it is also important to understand how this community functions as a result of its selection. Along with looking at community composition, genomic material was tested to see if it contained mercury methylating (hgcA) or mercury reducing (merA) genes. Out of 22 samples, three of them were observed to have merA genes, while no samples had hgcA genes. These results indicate that microorganisms in Mustard and Nymph Springs may use mercury reduction. Understanding how microorganisms survive in environments with high concentrations of toxic pollutants is crucial because it can be used as a model to better understand mechanisms of resistance and the biogeochemical cycle, as well as for bioremediation and other solutions to anthropogenic problems.

Determination of veterinary pharmaceutical runoffs from a swine manure pile using LC–MS/MS

The mass usage of veterinary pharmaceuticals in farms has contributed to environmental pollution in vicinity waters, soils, and sediments from farms and composting facilities. In the present study, we investigated the usage of four antibiotics (viz., lincomycin, sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim) to understand their contamination routes from livestock manure piles. Residual levels of these antibiotics in a nearby reservoir were set as a positive control (Site 1), and a swine manure pile in a farm (Site 2) and a soil sample around the manure pile (Site 3) were selected for this study. Artificial rainwater was flowed into the manure sample (Site 2), the soil sample around the manure pile (Site 3), and a soil sample around the vicinity river (Site 4). A stream sample (Site 5) around the manure pile and river water near the manure pile (Site 6) were also collected. For qualitative and quantitative analyses, analytical validation was performed, and all the four antibiotics were detected at Site 1 in the concentration range of 0.03–1.6 µg/L. Lincomycin was the antibiotic with the highest detection level. At Site 2, the detection level of all antibiotics remained at 0.3–17.3 µg/L, and their residual amounts were continuously detected in subsequent samples with approximately 30-fold decrease. The migration of antibiotics was confirmed to be independent of pH value. Therefore, this study indicates that farm manure pile should be thoroughly managed for antibiotic contamination in vicinity areas with periodical monitoring, especially waterways.

Visualization and Analysis of Data from Small-Body Missions with NASA’s Solar System Treks Portals

<p>This presentation provides an overview of portals within NASA’s Solar System Treks Project (SSTP) that specifically target small bodies within our Solar System. These, and all of the portals in the suite of Solar System Trek portals, are available at https://trek.nasa.gov.</p> <p>These portals each allow for visualization of different data products in 2D maps with various projections. They also allow users to conduct interactive 3D flyovers. The VR tool allows users to generate their own virtual reality flyovers for any user-defined paths along the bodies’ surfaces. Other tools let users measure distances, generate elevation plots, and create 3D print files for user-defined regions or the entire body.</p> <p>JAXA’s Hayabusa 2 mission recently completed a campaign of reconnaissance, sample collection, and rover deployment at the near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu. JAXA is providing mission data to SSTP, which is incorporating it into the new Ryugu Trek portal (https://trek.nasa.gov/ryugu). The internationalized user interface features controls in both English and Japanese. The portal’s bookmarks feature takes users to particular areas of interest for more detailed looks at specific landforms and sites. On Ryugu, we focus on the surface sample site, impactor and sub-surface sample site, as well as landing sites and traverse paths for the HIBOU, OWL, and MASCOT rovers. We also highlight the first landforms on Ryugu to have been given official IAU names.</p> <p>While Hayabusa2 was exploring Ryugu, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission began conducting a detailed examination of the asteroid (101955) Bennu, another near-Earth object. At the request of NASA’s Planetary Science Division and the OSIRIS-REx mission, SSTP began implementation a new portal for the asteroid Bennu, featuring data that is being returned from OSIRIS-REx. The Bennu Trek portal (https://trek.nasa.gov/bennu) reveals Bennu’s top-like shape, a fascinating commonality with Ryugu. It also reveals details of Bennu’s intensely boulder covered terrain. Bookmarked features include Nightingale, Sandpiper, Osprey, and Kingfisher, the top four candidates for sample collection. We also highlight the first landforms on Bennu to have been given official IAU names. Each of these features were singled out as landmarks for OSIRIS-REx’s Natural Feature Tracking (NFT) navigation method that will be used to guide the spacecraft down to its surface sample collection site.</p> <p>In its investigations of Vesta and Ceres, NASA’s Dawn mission has returned spectacular data of the surfaces of these two prominent small bodies within the asteroid belt. This presentation will showcase the use of the Ceres Trek (https://trek.nasa.gov/ceres) and Vesta Trek (https://trek.nasa.gov/vesta) portals and demonstrate how they can be used to visualize and analyze particularly interesting landforms such as the pitted terrain on Vesta and relic cryovolcanoes on Ceres.</p> <p>Under development at this time is a new portal for Mars’ larger Moon, Phobos. This portal will make extensive use of data from ESA’s Mars Express. It is being designed in collaboration with JAXA to support Japan’s upcoming Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission. This presentation will provide a preview of a prototype for Phobos Trek.</p> <p>Other Near-Earth asteroids being considered as candidates for future portals include (433) Eros utilizing data gathered by the NEAR Shoemaker mission, and (25143) Itokawa using data from JAXA’s Hayabusa mission. Together, a growing collection of small body Trek portals would enhance capabilities for comparative planetology among this fascinating class of objects. </p> <p>All of these products are efforts in the NASA Solar System Treks Project, available at https://trek.nasa.gov. NASA's Solar System Trek online portals provide web-based suites of interactive data visualization and analysis tools to enable mission planners, planetary scientists, students, and the general public to access mapped data products from past and current missions for a growing number of planetary bodies. These portals are being used for site selection and analysis by NASA and its international partners, supporting upcoming missions. In addition to demonstrating the capabilities of selected portals in this presentation, we will solicit input from the community for ideas for future enhancements.</p> <p>The authors would like to thank the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, NASA’s SMD Science Engagement and Partnerships, the Advanced Explorations Systems Program of NASA’s Human Exploration Operations Directorate, and the Moon to Mars Directorate for their support and guidance in the development of the Solar System Treks.</p>

Wastewater sample site selection to estimate geographically-resolved community prevalence of COVID-19: A research protocol

Background: Wastewater monitoring for virus infections within communities can complement conventional clinical surveillance. Currently, most SARS-CoV-2 testing is performed during clinical encounters with symptomatic individuals, and therefore likely underrepresents actual population prevalence. Randomized testing on a regular basis to estimate population-level infection rates is prohibitively costly and is hampered by a range of barriers associated with participation in clinical research. In comparison, community-level fecal monitoring can be performed through wastewater surveillance and can effectively surveil communities with less temporal lag than other surveillance methods. However, epidemiologically-defined protocols for wastewater sample site selection are lacking. Methods: Herein we describe methods for developing a geographically-resolved population-level wastewater sampling approach in Jefferson County, Kentucky which may have general applicability for cities throughout the United States. This approach was developed by the selection of sampling locations along sewer lines transporting raw wastewater from geographically and demographically distinct areas that correspond with locations where random testing of residents occurs. Conclusions: Development of this protocol for population-level sampling for SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in wastewater can be utilized to inform consistent wastewater monitoring among cities for up-to-date and geographically-resolved information on COVID-19 prevalence within communities. This information could substantially supplement public health surveillance of COVID-19 and thus serve to better guide targeted mitigation strategies throughout the United States.

Validation of a point-of-care capillary lactate measuring device (Lactate Pro 2).

Background: The measurement of lactate in emergency medical services has the potential for earlier detection of shock and can be performed with a point-of-care handheld device. Validation of a point-of-care handheld device is required for prehospital implementation. Aim: The primary aim was to validate the accuracy of Lactate Pro 2 in healthy volunteers and in haemodynamically compromised intensive care patients. The secondary aim was to evaluate which sample site, fingertip or earlobe, is most accurate compared to arterial lactate.Methods: Arterial, venous and capillary blood samples from fingertips and earlobes were collected from intensive care patients and healthy volunteers. Arterial and venous blood lactate samples were analysed on a stationary hospital blood gas analyser (ABL800 Flex) as the reference device and compared to the Lactate Pro 2. We used the Bland-Altman method to calculate the limits of agreement and used mixed effect models to compare instruments and sample sites. Results: A total of 49 intensive care patients with elevated lactate and 11 healthy volunteers who performed a maximal oxygen consumption test to obtain elevated blood lactate levels were included. There was no significant difference in measured lactate between Lactate Pro 2 and the reference method using arterial blood in either the healthy volunteers or the intensive care patients. Capillary lactate measurement in the fingertip and earlobe of intensive care patients was 47% (95% CI (29% to 68%), p<0.001) and 27% (95%CI (11% to45%), p<0.001) higher, respectively, than the corresponding arterial blood lactate. Conclusion: Our results showed that the handheld Lactate Pro 2 had good agreement with the reference method using arterial blood in both intensive care patients and healthy volunteers. However, we found that the agreement was poorer using venous blood in both groups. Furthermore, the earlobe may be a better sample site than the fingertip in intensive care patients.