Transport telematic architecture of an electronic payment system for traditional merchant shipping

Wooden boats operating throughout an archipelagic country play an important role in connecting in particular remote areas and small islands. Those boats are deployed by traditional merchant shipping, also known as Pelra, abbreviated from Pelayaran Rakyat meaning Pelople's Shipping. They carry nearly all types of cargoes, and usually a family business. Efforts to alleviate its role are necessary, from various aspects. The duration of shipments of cargo by using Pelra ships is long, the impacts on the cashflow of many parties are immediately afected. The growth of internet usage open a window of opportunity to improve this situation, by introducing e-Payment system. This paper outlines this effort by applying the Intelligent Transpotation System (ITS) architecture. A Pelra route Surabaya-Bima serves a case study to investigate the viability of the e-payment. The study concludes that introduction of an e-payment system is promising

Heterogeneity of the Departments of Mental Health in the Veneto Region ten years after the National Plan 1994-96 for Mental Health. Which implication for clinical practice? Findings from the PICOS Project

AIMS: This study aims to present data on structural and human resources of public mental health services located in the Veneto Region, Italy, and to discuss them in the light of implementation of the first National Target Plan for Mental Health ("Progetto Obiettivo 1994-1996") ten years after its launch. METHODS: The study was conducted in the context of the PICOS (Psychosis Incident Cohort Outcome Study) Project, a large first-presentation multisite study on patients with psychotic disorders attending community mental heath services in the Veneto Region. Human and structural resources were surveyed in 26 study sites using a structured interview administered by the PICOS local referents. RESULTS: CMHCs and Day Centres were homogeneously distributed across the Region and their overall rates per resident population met the national standards; a wide variability in the distribution of Day Hospitals was found, with the overall rate per resident population very far from meeting the national standard; the overall rate for Residential Facilities beds was higher than the recommended national standard, showing however an high variability across sites. The overall rate of mental health professionals per resident population was only slightly below the national standard: this was mainly achieved thanks to non-profit organizations which supplement the public system with unspecialised professionals; however, a wide variability in the local rates per resident population was found, with the 50% of the sites showing rates far lower the national standard. Specific lack of trained professionals involved in the provision of psychosocial interventions was found in most sites. CONCLUSIONS: A marked variability in human and structural resources across community mental health services in the Veneto Region was found. Possible reasons for this heterogeneity were analysed and implications for mental health care provision were further discussed

Exploring the phyllosphere bacterial community for improving tree crops protection

Plants are able to interact with plentiful bacteria resulting in a number of positive or negative outcomes for plant health. The ecological balance between pathogens and beneficial bacteria could be strategically disturbed and manipulated for improving host plant protection. As bacterial communities present in the phyllosphere of herbaceous plants have been largely studied, a number of biocontrol agents for controlling host diseases are already identified and used with promising results. A few studies on the use of phyllosphere biocontrol agents on woody crop tree plants have revealed encouraging results toward a future where plant disease control could be attained without the application of chemical compounds. In addition to the use of biocontrol agents, disease suppression can be achieved by the manipulation of microbial communities through plant management practices. In this review, an overview of the available knowledge on phyllosphere bacterial communities of woody tree crop species is provided, giving special emphasis to the structural differences of bacterial communities living on and within important tree crop species. Studies and challenges on the application and/or manipulation of these bacteria under in planta conditions are discussed, disclosing new sustainable ways for dealing with woody crop diseases.This work was partially funded by European Structural and Investment Funds in the FEDER component, through the Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Programme (COMPETE 2020); and national funds, through the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031133. J.D. Mina thanks FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for PhD grant SFRH/BD/105341/2014