DORIS_Net: enhancing the regional impact of COPERNICUS program by setting up the European Network of Regional Contact Offices

Despite successful technological developments, COPERNICUS, the European Earth Observation flagship program, has been showing a weak regional involvement with regards to the wide capacities and benefits it provides for the Environment and Security domains at public and private level. During the project, a methodology was successfully implemented to raise regional awareness on COPERNICUS potential with the concept of a Regional Contact Offices (RCO) Network. This paper aims to describe the process of RCO's creation and certification. It also presents both benefits and challenges of management and sustainability faced by RCO in order to reach their operational goals. Finally, the paper explores the potential regional impact of RCO

Land-use and land-cover change detection in a semi-arid area of Niger using multi-temporal analysis of Landsat images

Recent studies using low-resolution satellite time series show that the Sahelian belt of West Africa is witnessing an increase in vegetation cover/biomass, called re-greening. However, detailed information on local processing and changes is rare or lacking. A multi-temporal set of Landsat images was used to produce land-cover maps for the years 2000 and 2007 in a semi-arid region of Niger, where an anomalous vegetation trend was previously detected. Several supervised classification approaches were tested: spectral classification of single Landsat data, temporal classification of normalized difference vegetation index time series from Landsat images, and two-step classification integrating both these approaches. The accuracy of the land-cover maps obtained ranges between 80% and 90% overall for the two-step classification approach. Comparison of the maps between the two years indicates a stable semi-arid region, where some change in hot spots exists despite a generally constant level of rainfall in the area during this period. In particular, the Dallol Bosso fossil valley highlights an increase in cultivated land, while a decrease in herbaceous vegetation was observed outside the valley where rangeland is the predominant natural landscape

Narrow-band ultraviolet therapy in early-stage mycosis fungoides: study on 20 patients

Background: In recent years, narrow-band ultraviolet B (NB-UVB, 311-313 nm) has been found to be beneficial for early-stages mycosis fungoides (MF). The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of NB-UVB in 20 patients with early-stage MF. Methods: Twenty patients ( 10 women and 10 men, mean age 54 +/- 22 years) with clinically and histologically confirmed MF were enrolled in the study. All of the patients had clinical stage I disease (T1 or T2, N0, M0) with cutaneous involvement, consisting of patchstage disease of limited extent, in 50% of the cases (stage IA), and more widespread in the other 50% (stage IB). All the patients were treated with NB-UVB therapy until more than 95% clearance of the patient's skin lesions had occurred. Results: A complete response was achieved in 90% of the cases after a mean of 29 +/- 14 treatments within a mean period of 4 months (range 1-8 months), with an average cumulative dose of 25 +/- 16.77 J/cm(2). In the follow-up period, relapse occurred after a mean period of 8 months (range 3-17 months), and then therapy was restarted. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that NB-UVB might be an efficient option for stage IA and IB MF patients

Critical evaluation of the variants influencing the clinical response of vitiligo: study of 60 cases treated with ultraviolet B narrow-band phototherapy.

BACKGROUND: The treatment of vitiligo is still a challenge, but ultraviolet B narrow-band (UVB-NB) therapy has been recently reported to be an effective and safe therapeutic option in patients with vitiligo. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is a critical evaluation of the variants (body sites, age, duration of the disease, and duration of the therapy) influencing the clinical response to UVB-NB therapy. METHODS: Sixty patients (23 male and 37 female), aged 6 to 70 years, with vitiligo, were treated with UVB-NB therapy over a maximum period of 2 years. The evaluation of the percentage of repigmentation was done through photographs. RESULTS: The lesions located on the face obtained a complete repigmentation in 68% of the patients, on the neck in 57.89%, and on the trunk in 50% within the first year of the therapy. In young patients vs. adults patients, the lesions located on the neck obtained a complete repigmentation in 83.33% vs. 46.15%, on the upper limbs in 28.57% vs. 9.52%, and on the lower limbs in 25% vs. 16.67%. In patients with vitiligo of recent onset, the lesions located on the neck obtained a complete repigmentation in 83.33%, on the upper limbs in 33.33%, and on the lower limbs in 28.57%. Hands did not give a positive response in either groups. CONCLUSION: This study shows that certain body sites respond better than others to the UVB-NB therapy; patients, aged less than 20 years, with recent vitiligo, achieve more repigmentation; the duration of the therapy can influence the response of the lesions over hands and lower limbs, showing only mild repigmentation

The perilesional skin in vitiligo: a colorimetric “in vivo” study of 25 patients

Background: The aim of this work was to study in vivo the perilesional skin in vitiligo with a colorimetric method. Methods: Twenty-five patients affected by vitiligo were included. For each patient, three different areas were considered: the lesional, the perilesional and the normal skin as far as 5cm from the nearest vitiligo spot. Skin pigmentation measurements were performed with a chromameter. Results: The results showed that luminance L* decreased significantly in relation to increasing distance from the vitiligo spot. As expected, L* in the vitiligo spot was significantly higher than in the perilesional (P < 0.0001) and normal skin (P < 0.0001). There was a small difference in L* between normal skin as far as 5cm from the nearest vitiligo spot and perilesional skin. In contrast, the pigmentation index (b*) gradually increased from lesional to perilesional to normal skin. Furthermore, the comparison of the b* value between the normal skin as far as 5cm from the nearest vitiligo spot was higher than perilesional skin and it was statistically significant (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Our results in vivo underline that the perilesional skin near the vitiligo spot is lighter than normal skin as far as 5 cm from the vitiligo spot