Computer-aided classification for remote sensing in agriculture and forestry in Northern Italy

A set of results concerning the processing and analysis of data from LANDSAT satellite and airborne scanner is presented. The possibility of performing inventories of irrigated crops-rice, planted groves-poplars, and natural forests in the mountians-beeches and chestnuts, is investigated in the Po valley and in an alphine site of Northern Italy. Accuracies around 95% or better, 70% and 60% respectively are achieved by using LANDSAT data and supervised classification. Discrimination of rice varieties is proved with 8 channels data from airborne scanner, processed after correction of the atmospheric effect due to the scanning angle, with and without linear feature selection of the data. The accuracies achieved range from 65% to more than 80%. The best results are obtained with the maximum likelihood classifier for normal parameters but rather close results are derived by using a modified version of the weighted euclidian distance between points, with consequent decrease in computing time around a factor 3

Mapping thermal inertia, soil moisture and evaporation from aircraft day and night thermal data

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Scaffold requirements for periodontal regeneration with enamel matrix derivative proteins

Periodontitis affects the attachment of natural teeth, and infection or inflammation associated with periodontitis may affect peri-implant tissues. Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) proteins provide stimulation for self-regeneration of the damaged tissue when applied to wide intrabony defects as part of a mixture with bone graft material. As a first step of the process enhancing cell proliferation and ligament formation, we demonstrated that EMD protein precipitation depends strongly on the physical and chemical characteristics of the bone grafts used in the mixture. To guarantee optimum protein-stimulated self regulation, the pH of the initial EMD formulation must therefore be adjusted between 3.9 and 4.2 in order to compensate the change in pH induced by the bone graft. Moreover, the interaction between the two components resulted in precipitates of different shape and size differently covering the grafts. This outcome might potentially have clinical implications on cell attachment and periodontal ligament extension, which deserve further in vitro and in vivo tests. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Rapid decreases in preoptic aromatase activity and brain monoamine concentrations after engaging in male sexual behavior

In Japanese quail as in rats, the expression of male sexual behavior over relatively long time periods (days to weeks) is dependent on the local production of estradiol in the preoptic area via the aromatization of testosterone. On a short-term basis (minutes to hours), central actions of dopamine as well as locally produced estrogens modulate behavioral expression. In rats, a view of and sexual interaction with a female increases dopamine release in the preoptic area. In quail, in vitro brain aromatase activity is rapidly modulated by calcium-dependent phosphorylations that are likely to occur in vivo as a result of changes in neurotransmitter activity. Furthermore, an acute estradiol injection rapidly stimulates copulation in quail, while a single injection of the aromatase inhibitor Vorozole™ rapidly inhibits this behavior. We hypothesized that brain aromatase and dopaminergic activities are regulated in quail in association with the expression of male sexual behavior. Visual access as well as sexual interactions with a female produced a significant decrease in brain aromatase activity that was maximal after 5 min. This expression of sexual behavior also resulted in a significant decrease in dopaminergic as well as serotonergic activity after 1 min, which returned to basal levels after 5 min. These results demonstrate for the first time that aromatase activity is rapidly modulated in vivo in parallel with changes in dopamine activity. Sexual interactions with the female decreased aromatase and dopamine activity. These data challenges established views about the causal relationships among dopamine, estrogen action and male sexual behavior. Copyright © 2005 by The Endocrine Society