DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A GIS-BASED PLATFORM USING OPEN SOURCE COMPONENTS FOR MONITORING, MAINTENANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF ROAD NETWORK: THE CASE STUDY OF CYPRUS

Road transport is an important infrastructure system that has a vital role in economic progress, sustainable development, and urban prosperity of societies. Thus, geospatial fundamentals of transport systems need to be adequately considered by the organizations that manage such infrastructures. Furthermore, the adoption of methodologies for monitoring, control and optimisation of transportation networks, from a geographical perspective is crucial to deploy or utilize resources efficiently and cost-effectively. This paper aims to describe the implementation of a complete Geographical Information (GI) based system as developed for the needs of the Cyprus road transport infrastructure. The paper focuses on the system architecture and the presentation of the desktop and mobile application interfaces and utilities. The GI-based system provides a good example of how different tools and open-source components can be integrated to provide a complete solution for collecting, storing, managing, analysing and disseminating geographical information data related to road network infrastructure. The use of the platform within the organization has resulted in a noticeable increase in productivity and accountability. The errors in data collection, analysis and storage were minimized and thus the quality of available data been significantly improved. This is a step towards the achievement of the goals of the European Digital Strategy by using Geographical Information System technologies to take reliable and accurate decisions related to road network monitoring, maintenance and management

Position statement and best practice recommendations on the imaging use of ultrasound from the European Society of Radiology ultrasound subcommittee

This document summarises best practice recommendations for medical imaging use of ultrasound in Europe, representing the agreed consensus of experts from the Ultrasound Subcommittee of the European Society of Radiology (ESR), the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) Section of Radiology, and the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology. Recommendations are given for education and training, equipment and its maintenance, documentation, hygiene and infection prevention, and medico-legal issues

Carotid and Femoral Arterial Wall Changes and Prevalence of Clinical Cardiovascular Disease

The Cyprus Study is a prospective cohort study of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Its aim is to determine the relationship of intima–media thickness (IMT) of the common carotid (IMTcc), maximum thickness of IMT in the carotid bifurcation (IMTmax), number of carotid and femoral bifurcations with plaque and total plaque thickness (TPT) (sum of the maximum plaque measurements taken from the four bifurcations scanned) with the prevalence of clinical CVD. A total of 767 individuals (46% male) over the age of 40 years were recruited from a mountain village and a town outside the capital Nicosia. In addition to clinical examination, carotid and common femoral bifurcations were scanned with ultrasound. After controlling for conventional risk factors, there was little evidence of an association of IMTcc with CVD prevalence. However, IMTmax and TPT were associated with 2.9-fold (1.22 to 7.07) and 6.87-fold (2.42 to 19.43) increased odds of CVD prevalence, respectively. In conclusion, the TPT and number of bifurcations with plaque are more strongly associated with the prevalence of CVD. These findings warrant investigation in prospective studies to document associations with incident CVD events

Association of serum homocysteine, folate and MTHFR C677T genotypes with early atherosclerosis: results fron the Cyprus study

Abstract paper presented in the 76th Congress of the European Atherosclerosis Society, 2007, Helsinki, Finland, 10–13 Jun