Accuracy Assessment of the ESA CCI 20M Land Cover Map: Kenya, Gabon, Ivory Coast and South Africa

This working paper presents the overall and spatial accuracy assessment of the European Space Agency (ESA) 20 m prototype land cover map for Africa for four countries: Kenya, Gabon, Ivory Coast and South Africa. This accuracy assessment was undertaken as part of the ESA-funded CrowdVal project. The results varied from 44% (for South Africa) to 91% (for Gabon). In the case of Kenya (56% overall accuracy) and South Africa, these values are largely caused by the confusion between grassland and shrubland. However, if a weighted confusion matrix is used, which diminishes the importance of the confusion between grassland and shrubs, the overall accuracy for Kenya increases to 79% and for South Africa, 75%. The overall accuracy for Ivory Coast (47%) is a result of a highly fragmented land cover, which makes it a difficult country to map with remote sensing. The exception was Gabon with a high overall accuracy of 91%, but this can be explained by the high amount of tree cover across the country, which is a relatively easy class to map

Factors That Predict DrugCourt Completion and Dropout: Findings from an Evaluation of SaltLake County’s Adult Felony Drug Court

This study examined program outcomes for 133 graduates (46.2%) and 155 terminated clients (53.8%) of an adult felony drug court in Salt Lake City, Utah, in an effort to identify factors that predict program completion and drop out. Logistic regression analyses identified three factors related to drop out: depression, cocaine/stimulants as most troubling substance, and additional charges prior to drug court intake. Two factors were found to be related to completion: spending free time with family rather than with friends or alone and older age at intake. The model correctly predicted 65% of graduates and 73% of dropouts. These findings are discussed with respect to their implications for policy, practice, and future research

Prevalência da estenose aterosclerótica do tronco celíaco e da artéria mesentérica superior na arteriopatia oclusiva dos membros inferiores Prevalence of atherosclerotic stenosis of celiac trunk and superior mesenteric artery in occlusive arteriopathy of lower limbs

Contexto: A eventual relação entre a aterosclerose das artérias dos membros inferiores com a aterosclerose das artérias intestinais foi pouco estudada. Objetivo: Avaliar pela ecografia vascular (Doppler) presença de lesões com estenose 70% na artéria mesentérica superior e/ou tronco celíaco em doentes com arteriopatia obstrutiva crônica dos membros inferiores. Método: Foram estudados dois grupos, cada um com 60 doentes (40 homens e 20 mulheres). O grupo-caso foi composto por doentes com arteriopatia obstrutiva crônica dos membros inferiores, claudicação intermitente limitante ou dor de repouso e/ou lesões tróficas de extremidade, sem queixas gastrintestinais. O grupo-controle foi constituído por enfermos sem doença arterial obstrutiva dos membros inferiores e sem queixas gastrintestinais. Consideraram-se fatores de risco presença de diabetes melito, hipertensão arterial, obesidade, angina/infarto, tabagismo e dislipidemia. Todos os doentes foram submetidos a ecografia vascular do tronco celíaco e da artéria mesentérica superior. Os doentes do grupo-caso foram separados pela presença de claudicação intermitente limitante (N = 12) ou lesão trófica e/ou dor de repouso (N = 48). Resultados: Houve associação significante entre idade (p = 0,04) e cardiopatia isquêmica (p = 0,04) com aterosclerose da artéria mesentérica superior. Os fatores de risco não mostraram associação significante com presença de estenose do tronco celíaco. Observou-se associação significante entre arteriopatia dos membros inferiores e lesão estenótica da artéria mesentérica superior (p = 0,006) e do tronco celíaco (p < 0,001). Conclusões: Na ecografia vascular, o achado de arteriopatia periférica sugere presença de lesão estenótica em artéria mesentérica superior e/ou tronco celíaco. A aterosclerose na artéria mesentérica superior está associada com cardiopatia isquêmica e idade avançada.<br>Background: The occasional relationship between arterial atherosclerosis of lower limbs and atherosclerosis of intestinal arteries has not been fully studied yet. Objective: To assess the presence of lesions with &#8805; 70% stenosis in the superior mesenteric artery and/or in the celiac trunk in patients with chronic obstructive arteriopathy of the lower limbs using vascular ultrasound (Doppler). Method: Two groups were involved, a study group and a control group, each comprising 60 patients (40 men and 20 women). The study group consisted of patients with chronic obstructive arterial disease of the lower limbs, limiting intermittent claudication or rest pain, and/or trophic lesions of the extremities but no gastrointestinal complaints. The control group comprised patients without obstructive arterial disease of the lower limbs or gastrointestinal complaints. The presence of diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, obesity, angina/infarct, smoking or dyslipidemia was considered a risk factor. All patients were submitted to vascular ultrasound of the celiac trunk and superior mesenteric artery. The patients of the study group were divided according to the presence of limiting intermittent claudication (n = 12) or trophic lesion and/or rest pain (n = 48). Results: A significant association was found between age (p = 0.04) and presence of ischemic cardiopathy (p = 0.04) with atherosclerosis of the superior mesenteric artery. The risk factors showed no significant association with presence of stenosis of the celiac trunk. A significant association was found between the presence of arteriopathy of the lower limbs and stenotic lesion of the superior mesenteric artery (p = 0.006) and the celiac trunk (p < 0.001). Conclusions: On vascular ultrasound, a finding of peripheral arteriopathy of the lower limbs suggests the presence of stenotic lesion in the superior mesenteric artery and /or the celiac trunk. The atherosclerosis in the superior mesenteric artery is associated with ischemic cardiopathy and advanced age

The Importance of Lateral Connections in the Parietal Cortex for Generating Motor Plans

<div><p>Substantial evidence has highlighted the significant role of associative brain areas, such as the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in transforming multimodal sensory information into motor plans. However, little is known about how different sensory information, which can have different delays or be absent, combines to produce a motor plan, such as executing a reaching movement. To address these issues, we constructed four biologically plausible network architectures to simulate PPC: 1) feedforward from sensory input to the PPC to a motor output area, 2) feedforward with the addition of an efference copy from the motor area, 3) feedforward with the addition of lateral or recurrent connectivity across PPC neurons, and 4) feedforward plus efference copy, and lateral connections. Using an evolutionary strategy, the connectivity of these network architectures was evolved to execute visually guided movements, where the target stimulus provided visual input for the entirety of each trial. The models were then tested on a memory guided motor task, where the visual target disappeared after a short duration. Sensory input to the neural networks had sensory delays consistent with results from monkey studies. We found that lateral connections within the PPC resulted in smoother movements and were necessary for accurate movements in the absence of visual input. The addition of lateral connections resulted in velocity profiles consistent with those observed in human and non-human primate visually guided studies of reaching, and allowed for smooth, rapid, and accurate movements under all conditions. In contrast, Feedforward or Feedback architectures were insufficient to overcome these challenges. Our results suggest that intrinsic lateral connections are critical for executing accurate, smooth motor plans.</p></div