Diet Rich in Plant Protein May Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

Purpose : The aim is to show the ideal protein quality and quantity and the dietary composition for the prevention and metabolic control of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Introduction Although some reviews demonstrate the advantages of a diet with a higher protein intake, other reviews have observed that a diet high in carbohydrates, with low-glycaemic index carbohydrates and good fibre intake, is equally effective in improving insulin sensitivity. Methods Over 2831 articles were screened, and 24 from the last 5 years were analysed and summarised for this review, using the protein, diabetes and insulin glucose metabolic keywords in Pubmed in June 2019. Results Eleven studies demonstrate that a higher consumption of proteins has a positive effect on insulin sensitivity. A higher intake of animal protein seems to be related to an increased risk of T2DM. Four studies show that consumption of meat has a deleterious effect. Higher intake of plant protein and dairy products is associated with a modestly reduced risk. Discussion Based on the results obtained, for the prevention of T2DM and all disorders related to metabolic syndrome, no ideal dietary composition has yet been found. The advantage of plant protein sources may be related to the foods' low-glycaemic index due to the high fibre content. However, the right protein quality (animal and plant) and the quantity for T2DM prevention and metabolic control are unclear and need to be investigated with further long-term studies

First Application of high resolution BRDF Algorithm (HABA) for reflectance normalization on a Fusion dataset from the Sen2Like Processor

Normalized Bidirectional Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR) is a key parameter for a consistent time series monitoring over non-lambertian surfaces. The Sen2like is a Virtual Constellation (VC) which harmonizes and fuses Landsat 8 / Landsat 9 & Sentinel 2 dataset giving out a higher spatial and temporal resolution surface reflectance. However, for adequate monitoring of land surface is necessary the correction of sun and sensor angle view across the VC acquisitions. In this context, the High resolution Adjusted BRDF Algorithm (HABA) provides up to 10m NBAR product retrieved from the disaggregation of the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) parameters based on the VJB method applied to MODIS M{O,Y} D09 Climate Model Grid (CMG) at 1km resolution. HABA downscales this product to Sen2Like resolution inverting BRDF parameters (V & R) using the k-means unsupervised classification for each dataset. In order to compensate for the impact on images that do not present sufficient data representativeness due to cloud coverage, the disaggregated parameters are stabilized computing linear trends of time series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) versus V & R. The model was evaluated on stable sites, such as Sahara Desert (Libya) and Amazonian Forest (Brazil) by comparing the impact of View Zenith Angle (VZA) and Solar Zenith Angle (SZA) of directional reflectance, a static NBAR model and HABA for Near InfraRed (NIR) and red spectrum. Also, the Sen2Like performance was assessed on dynamic sites with a mosaic of land covers across the Belgium tiles, calculating the absolute difference per tile in a 5-day window. The results of stable sites show a decline of linear dependency on the Amazon VZA from R² 0.57 (directional) to 0.37 (HABA) in NIR and R² 0.04 (directional) to 0.0 (HABA) in red. The Sahara Desert showed a correction of 4% of linear dependency of SZA versus reflectance. Finally, in Belgium, HABA corrected up to 12,74 % the directional effect on the time series. This work contributes to develop a dynamic and operationalization of NBAR correction method based on pixel scale for high resolution datasets

Sen2Like: Paving the Way towards Harmonization and Fusion of Optical Data

Satellite Earth Observation (EO) sensors are becoming a vital source of information for land surface monitoring. The concept of the Virtual Constellation (VC) is gaining interest within the science community owing to the increasing number of satellites/sensors in operation with similar characteristics. The establishment of a VC out of individual missions offers new possibilities for many application domains, in particular in the fields of land surface monitoring and change detection. In this context, this paper describes the Copernicus Sen2Like algorithms and software, a solution for harmonizing and fusing Landsat 8/Landsat 9 data with Sentinel-2 data. Developed under the European Union Copernicus Program, the Sen2Like software processes a large collection of Level 1/Level 2A products and generates high quality Level 2 Analysis Ready Data (ARD) as part of harmonized (Level 2H) and/or fused (Level 2F) products providing high temporal resolutions. For this purpose, we have re-used and developed a broad spectrum of data processing and analysis methodologies, including geometric and spectral co-registration, atmospheric and Bi-Directional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) corrections and upscaling to 10 m for relevant Landsat bands. The Sen2Like software and the algorithms have been developed within a VC establishment framework, and the tool can conveniently be used to compare processing algorithms in combinations. It also has the potential to integrate new missions from spaceborne and airborne platforms including unmanned aerial vehicles. The validation activities show that the proposed approach improves the temporal consistency of the multi temporal data stack, and output products are interoperable with the subsequent thematic analysis processes

Children at birth, children growing up. Integration between healthcare and family educational care

AbstractThis research is based on the assumption that in order to improve the quality of life of children with major health problems in the early stage of their life, especially in the case of disability, it is necessary to ensure the continuity and proper two-way integration of early childhood educational planning and health care, both provided by the adults involved, that is parents and professionals. Therefore, we tried to explore and piece together the complex set of family support experiences, both in the process of forming an attachment and affiliation to the newborn and in the construction of a common evolutionary history, aimed at the well-being of the entire family unit. We considered the context and actors of the first few days and months in the lives of children with a difficult life course, in a city of Northern Italy. By means of qualitative investigation, we carried out observations in the neonatal intensive care units of hospitals over a period of 10months. Our observations continued in the local healthcare, social, and educational services, entrusted with providing care to children and support to parents after hospital discharge. We also carried out observations in nursery schools, in order to highlight early forms of individualised educational planning, drawn up by the educators together with the family

Performance of Satellite-Based Evapotranspiration Models in Temperate Pastures of Southern Chile

Farmers in the temperate zone of southern Chile have started to irrigate historically rainfed pastures during recent years to reduce dairy productivity losses against increasingly severe summer droughts. The lack of information on pasture water requirements (i.e., evapotranspiration), however, hampers the implementation of efficient irrigation programs. Here, we use in-situ observations to evaluate the skill of four remote sensing Surface Energy Balance (SEB) models and two satellite-based global evapotranspiration products (PML_V2 and GLEAM) to estimate actual evapotranspiration (ETa) of pastures in southern Chile during 2014–2017. Daily ETa measured at an evaluation site over the period ranges between 1.2 mm and 6.2 mm day−1 during the growing season (October–March), with an annual maximum of about 4.8 mm day−1 in January and a minimum 0.6 mm day−1 in June. Only the Simplified SEB (SEBS) model and its operational variant (SSEBop) and the PML_V2 global evapotranspiration product perform well, capturing 63–79% of the variance of in-situ evapotranspiration with an error between 0.75 mm day−1 and 1.1 mm day−1. The readily available PML_V2 product can be used as a convenient way to determine average water footprint of pastures and the two SEBs models can be implemented to monitor irrigation requirements in near-real time from field to regional scales. These results demonstrated a high potential of satellite observations for monitoring evapotranspiration and quantify the water footprint of pastures in southern Chile for a sustainable irrigation practice

Evaluation of actual ET models over grasslands for Los Rios and los Lagos region using remote sensing and in situ data

Memoria para optar al Título Profesional de Ingeniero en Recursos Naturales RenovablesEl efecto del calentamiento global en Chile se ha evidenciado a través de las tendencias que indican el aumento de la temperatura del aire y el descenso de precipitaciones, lo que podría generar un impacto sobre los sistemas pastoriles de Chile, principalmente de las regiones de Los Ríos y Los Lagos. Estos sistemas podrían estar bajo una condición de vulnerabilidad frente a eventos de sequía que tienen una importante demanda de hídrica. El objetivo de esta memoria es evaluar estimar la Evapotranspiración Real (ETa) en praderas en los sistemas silvopastoriles del sur de Chile. Para esto, se utilizaron datos derivados de teledetección generados por el satélite Landsat (L7 ETM+ y L8-OLI/TIRS), estaciones meteorológicas y mapas de cobertura de la superficie. Para la estimación de ETa se utilizaron cuatro métodos tales como SEBS, SEBAL, METRIC y SSEBop aplicados en toda el área de estudio comprendida entre las regiones de Los Ríos y Los Lagos para el periodo comprendido entre 2014 y 2016. Los resultados muestran que el método SSEBop presenta el menor error en relación a los otros modelos estimado en 24,09%. Así mismo, el RMSE arroja valores de 0,67 mm día-1, menor al de los otros modelos para el área de estudio. SSEBop se puede aplicar para la región del sur de Chile, aunque la disponibilidad de los datos satelitales está en estricta relación con la cobertura nubosa. Si bien es cierto, el aumento de la resolución temporal correspondiente a la información satelital podría mejorar la estimación de ETa minimizando el efecto de la nubosidad, es necesario realizar ajustes entre las resoluciones espaciales como métodos de desagregación. Finalmente, esta memoria contribuye a complementar la información de la huella hídrica de las praderas a través de estimaciones mediante el uso de satélites en los sistemas pastoriles de Chile

Performance of Satellite-Based Evapotranspiration Models in Temperate Pastures of Southern Chile

Farmers in the temperate zone of southern Chile have started to irrigate historically rainfed pastures during recent years to reduce dairy productivity losses against increasingly severe summer droughts. The lack of information on pasture water requirements (i.e., evapotranspiration), however, hampers the implementation of efficient irrigation programs. Here, we use in-situ observations to evaluate the skill of four remote sensing Surface Energy Balance (SEB) models and two satellite-based global evapotranspiration products (PML_V2 and GLEAM) to estimate actual evapotranspiration (ETa) of pastures in southern Chile during 2014–2017. Daily ETa measured at an evaluation site over the period ranges between 1.2 mm and 6.2 mm day−1 during the growing season (October–March), with an annual maximum of about 4.8 mm day−1 in January and a minimum 0.6 mm day−1 in June. Only the Simplified SEB (SEBS) model and its operational variant (SSEBop) and the PML_V2 global evapotranspiration product perform well, capturing 63–79% of the variance of in-situ evapotranspiration with an error between 0.75 mm day−1 and 1.1 mm day−1. The readily available PML_V2 product can be used as a convenient way to determine average water footprint of pastures and the two SEBs models can be implemented to monitor irrigation requirements in near-real time from field to regional scales. These results demonstrated a high potential of satellite observations for monitoring evapotranspiration and quantify the water footprint of pastures in southern Chile for a sustainable irrigation practice

Multidisciplinary management of dysphagic patient in oncologic head and neck surgery

Aim. Diagnosis, treatment and cure of patients affected by head and neck tumours may be complex and require the organised intervention of many specialists with specific skills and clinical experiences (counseling education and relation with the patient). In this paper we considered the multidisaplinary management of patients affected by head and neck tumors developed by the I ENT division of the University of Turin, evaluating the case reports of about 23 patients followed from January to December 2007. Analysis focused in particular on the pre- and postsurgery information, the speech therapy counseling, the rehabilitation plan management having the aim to avoid anxiety, depression and distress. Methods. The multitask team was composed by an ENT doctor, a speech therapist, a radiotherapist, a gastroenterologist, an anesthetist, some practical nurses, a dentist, a physiatrist, a physiotherapist, a dietician, a nutritionist and a radiologist. A questionnaire about the patient's compliance and the speech therapy management during the pre- and postsurgery period was developed, with the purpose to verify the customer satisfaction. Results. From the data's analysis a high degree of satisfaction for the received information emerged together with the appreciation of the psychological and technical support provided by the specialized personnel involved. Conclusion. A quick recovery often derives from the technical skills of the personnel, but also from the rehabilitation process and patient's willingness to face his/her illness and its functional and emotional consequences