Studio di un sistema informativo territoriale per la pianificazione delle aree costiere

L’obiettivo del presente lavoro è rappresentato dalla messa a punto di un prototipo di sistema informativo territoriale che consenta di verificare come il territorio costiero si può evolvere in funzione di diverse scelte di pianificazione territoriale. L’area in studio è rappresentata da una porzione settentrionale della costa della Gallura (Sardegna). Il prototipo consente di effettuare delle analisi di valutazione di diversi possibili scenari di pianificazione territoriale, le aree che si ricavano possono essere sfruttabili per diverse tipologie di attività o essere classificate come soggette a protezione totale o parziale.The aim of this paper is to develop a GIS application for coastal territorial planning. The study area is in the northern part of Gallura (Sardinia). A prototype of this application is being developed. The prototype-tool allows to evaluate different scenarios, within the GIS, of landscape planning, and helps the planners during the process of decision making; the obtained areas can be exploited for different kinds of activities or can be classified as totally or partially protected

Land planning through GIS, RS and multicriteria decision analysis. A case study in Sardinia

During the last few years researchers and environmental planners have carried on their preliminary studies following an interdisciplinary approach. One of the main issues in this approach is the sustainability of economic development. As a matter of fact, the importance of the studies related to the distribution and the limits of natural resources is widely recognized. This can be accomplished more easily than in present by the use of extremely powerful computer application. The purpose of this contribution is to demonstrate the usefulness of an integrated approach of the GIS and of the RS to planning in complex problems of decision making. Many GIS applications are suited to the input of remote sensing and the integration of these techniques is now accepted in landscape planning. By means of GIS and RS, environmental information can be integrated with administrative, political, social and economic data. GIS, RS and fuzzy logic techniques are used to assist environmental compatibility studies and decision makin

Using cloud computing to develop an integrated virtual system for online GIScience programs

The variety of offerings of online Geographical Information Science (GIS) programs has been extensively reported in the literature, which describes various types of degrees and certificates offered by institutions all over the world. Most online courses have merely focused on delivering lectures, for which standard presentation tools such as PowerPoint are sufficient to fulfil this task. It is imperative for GIS online courses to deliver instruction as a series of interactive steps. This paper presents how an integrated virtual system based on cloud computing can be developed to enhance GIS online courses, and how such an approach provides an interactive teaching method to improve the quality of communication between students and teachers

Assessing the methods needed for improved dengue mapping: a SWOT analysis

Introduction: Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral infection, is a growing threat to human health in tropical and subtropical areas worldwide. There is a demand from public officials for maps that capture the current distribution of dengue and maps that analyze risk factors to predict the future burden of disease. Methods: To identify relevant articles, we searched Google Scholar, PubMed, BioMed Central, and WHOLIS (World Health Organization Library Database) for published articles with a specific set of dengue criteria between January 2002 and July 2013. Results: After evaluating the currently available dengue models, we identified four key barriers to the creation of high-quality dengue maps: (1) data limitations related to the expense of diagnosing and reporting dengue cases in places where health information systems are underdeveloped; (2) issues related to the use of socioeconomic proxies in places with limited dengue incidence data; (3) mosquito ranges which may be changing as a result of climate changes; and (4) the challenges of mapping dengue events at a variety of scales. Conclusion: An ideal dengue map will present endemic and epidemic dengue information from both rural and urban areas. Overcoming the current barriers requires expanded collaboration and data sharing by geographers, epidemiologists, and entomologists. Enhanced mapping techniques would allow for improved visualizations of dengue rates and risks

Mosquito habitat and dengue risk potential in Kenya: alternative methods to traditional risk mapping techniques

Outbreaks, epidemics and endemic conditions make dengue a disease that has emerged as a major threat in tropical and sub-tropical countries over the past 30 years. Dengue fever creates a growing burden for public health systems and has the potential to affect over 40% of the world population. The problem being investigated is to identify the highest and lowest areas of dengue risk. This paper presents “Similarity Search”, a geospatial analysis aimed at identifying these locations with- in Kenya. Similarity Search develops a risk map by combining environmental susceptibility analysis and geographical infor- mation systems, and then compares areas with dengue prevalence to all other locations. Kenya has had outbreaks of dengue during the past 3 years, and we identified areas with the highest susceptibility to dengue infection using bioclimatic variables, elevation and mosquito habitat as input to the model. Comparison of the modelled risk map with the reported dengue epi- demic cases obtained from the open source reporting ProMED and Government news reports from 1982-2013 confirmed the high-risk locations that were used as the Similarity Search presence cells. Developing the risk model based upon the bio- climatic variables, elevation and mosquito habitat increased the efficiency and effectiveness of the dengue fever risk mapping process

Endoscopic resection for superficial colorectal neoplasia in Italy: A prospective multicentre study

Background: Since there are few prospective studies on colorectal endoscopic resection to date, we aimed to prospectively assess safety and efficacy of endoscopic resection in a cohort of Italian patients.Methods: Prospective multicentre assessment of resection of sessile polyps or non-polypoid lesions >= 10 mm in size or smaller (if depressed). Outcome measures included complete excision, morbidity, mortality, and residual/recurrence at 12 months.Results: Overall, 1012 resections in 928 patients were analysed (62.4% sessile polyps, 28.8% laterally spreading tumours, 8.7% depressed non-polypoid lesions). Lesions were prevalent in the proximal colon. Enbloc resection was possible in 715/1012 cases (70.7%), whereas piecemeal resection was required in 297 (29.3%). Endoscopically complete excision was achieved in 866 cases (85.6%). Adverse events occurred in 83 (8.2%), and no deaths occurred. Independent predictors of 12-month residual/recurrence were the location of the lesion in the proximal colon (OR 2.22 [95% CI 1.16-4.26]; p = 0.015) and piecemeal endoscopic resection (OR 2.76 [95% CI 1.56-4.87]; p = 0.0005). Limitations of the study were: potential expertise bias, no data on eligible and potentially resectable excluded lesions, high percentage of lesions < 20 mm, follow-up limited to 1 year.Conclusion: In this registry study the endoscopic resection of colorectal lesions was safe and achieved high rates of long-term endoscopic clearance. (C) 2013 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Prevalence of nonpolypoid colorectal neoplasia: an italian multicenter observational study

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of nonpolypoid lesions (NPLs) in Italy and their risk of containing neoplasia or advanced histology.PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a multicenter cross-sectional observational study on consecutive patients undergoing total colonoscopy over a 3-month period in 80 Italian centers.RESULTS: In all, 27,400 total colonoscopies were analyzed. Cancer was diagnosed in 801 patients (2.9 %). A total of 6553 precancerous lesions were detected in 5609 patients. Of these, 4154 patients (74.1 %) had polypoid lesions and 1455 patients (25.9 %) had NPLs. Therefore, the prevalence of NPLs was 5.3 % (95 %CI 5.0 - 5.6). NPLs larger than 10 mm were detected in 254 patients (17.5 %). NPLs were more predominant in the proximal colon (OR 2.92, 95 %CI 2.56 - 3.43; P < 0.0001 vs. polypoid lesions). Neoplastic tissue was diagnosed in 79.0 % and advanced histology (high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia or more) in 20.9 % of resected lesions. The risk of advanced histology was similar for polypoid and nonpolypoid lesions when adjusted for size. Depressed lesions had the highest risk of advanced histology (OR 10.56, 95 %CI 6.02 - 18.55; P < 0.0000 vs. flat-elevated). Age was an independent predictor of both neoplasia and advanced histology ( P = 0.0001).CONCLUSIONS: NPLs are relatively common in the Italian population, with a prevalence similar to that in other Western series. NPLs are not more aggressive than polypoid lesions, except for those with depressed morphology