Above‐Ground Biomass Estimation with High Spatial Resolution Satellite Images

Assessment and monitoring of forest biomass are frequently done with allometric functions per species for inventory plots. The estimation per area unit is carried out with an extrapolation method. In this chapter, a review of the recent methods to estimate forest above‐ground biomass (AGB) using remote sensing data is presented. A case study is given with an innovative methodology to estimate above‐ground biomass based on crown horizontal projection obtained with high spatial resolution satellite images for two evergreen oak species. The linear functions fitted for pure, mixed and both compositions showed a good performance. Also, the functions with dummy variables to distinguish species and compositions adjusted had the best performance. An error threshold of 5% corresponds to stand areas of 8.7 and 5.5 ha for the functions of all species and compositions without and with dummy variables. This method enables the overall area evaluation, and it is easily implemented in a geographic information system environment

Liver abscess due to Salmonella enteritidis in a returned traveler with HIV infection: case report and review of the literature

Os pacientes com infecção pelo vírus da imunodeficiência humana (VIH) apresentam maior frequência de bacteremia associada a Salmonella não-typhi. Porém, complicações focais têm sido raramente descritas. Os autores relatam um caso de abscesso hepático devido a Salmonella enteritidis em paciente com infecção pelo VIH que retornou recentemente a São Paulo de uma viagem pelo Caribe. Após drenagem percutânea do abscesso e tratamento antimicrobiano, observou-se melhora clínica e radiológica. Segundo nossa revisão, este é o primeiro caso descrito de abscesso hepático por Salmonella não-typhi em paciente com infecção pelo VIH no Brasil.Bacteremia due to non-typhi Salmonella is more frequent in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, focal complications have been rarely described. We report a case of liver abscess due to Salmonella enteritidis in an HIV-infected patient who recently returned to Sao Paulo, Brazil, from a trip in the Caribbean. A good clinical and radiological response was seen with both percutaneous catheter drainage and antibiotic treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first culture proven case of non-typhi Salmonellaliver abscess in an HIV-infected patient in Brazil

BioRePortAP, an electronic clinical record coupled with a database : an example of its use in a single

Aims: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the treatment of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists in the Rheumatology Department of Hospital de Santa Maria using the BioRePortAP. Methods: The Portuguese Society of Rheumatology (SPR) developed an electronic medical chart coupled with a database for the follow up of PsA patients, the BioRePortAP, which was launched in May 2009. This evaluation was based on all the PsA patients that were on active treatment with TNF antagonists in September 2009 and were registered in the BioRePortAP. All the previous data on these patients were introduced in BioRePortAP using the prospective paper based follow up protocol that this Department was using since 1999. Only patients with more than 9 months of treatment were analyzed. Results: Forty-two patients with PsA, actively treated with anti-TNF agents in September 2009, for at least 9 months, were analyzed in BioRePortAP. Twenty-three patients were male (55%) and nineteen were female (45%). The average age of these patients was 49.8±10.9 years old, the average disease duration was of 10.7±5.6 years and the mean duration of biological therapy was of 37.8±27.8 months. For the 81% of patients with peripheral joint disease there was a mean reduction of more than 80% in the swollen and tender joint counts, and almost 50% in the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) value. In the 19% of the patients with axial involvement the reduction of BASDAI and BASFI was not statistically significative. On top of that, PASI score suffered a reduction of 64%. Fourteen patients (33.3%) had to switch their TNF antagonist treatment. 58.8% of the switches were due to adverse effects and 41.2% due to therapy failure. Regarding the 56 adverse reactions registered, only one was a severe reaction. The remaining adverse reactions were not severe and 67% of them were due to infections. Discussion: The results of this first report of the use of the BioRePortAP in clinical practice confirm the efficacy and safety of TNF antagonist treatment in PsA. The results shown here elucidate the potential applications of BioRePortAP as a tool for efficacy and safety assessment of PsA patients treated with biotechnological drugs

Abscesso tuberculoso cerebral em paciente com AIDS: relato de caso e revisão da literatura

Tuberculous brain abscesses in AIDS patients are considered rare with only eight cases reported in the literature. We describe the case of a 34-year-old woman with AIDS and previous toxoplasmic encephalitis who was admitted due to headache and seizures. A brain computed tomography scan disclosed a frontal hypodense lesion with a contrast ring enhancement. Brain abscess was suspected and she underwent a lesion puncture through a trepanation. The material extracted was purulent and the acid-fast smear was markedly positive. Timely medical and surgical approaches allowed a good outcome. Tuberculous abscesses should be considered in the differential diagnosis of focal brain lesions in AIDS patients. Surgical excision or stereotactic aspiration, and antituberculous treatment are the mainstay in the management of these uncommon lesions.Os abscessos tuberculosos cerebrais em pacientes com aids são raros, existindo apenas 8 casos publicados. Os autores relatam o caso de uma paciente de 34 anos com aids e antecedente de toxoplasmose cerebral, que foi admitida por cefaléia e convulsões. A tomografia computadorizada de crânio evidenciou lesão frontal única, grande, com realce anular e efeito expansivo. Diante da suspeita de abscesso cerebral foi submetida a trepanação, drenando material purulento e demonstrando presença de abundantes bacilos ácido-álcool resistentes. Abordagem cirúrgica e clínica oportuna determinaram uma boa evolução. Os abscessos tuberculosos devem ser considerados no diagnóstico diferencial das massas intracranianas em pacientes com aids. Excisão cirúrgica ou aspiração por estereotaxia e tuberculostáticos constituem as bases do tratamento destas lesões incomuns

Produção de arroz com baixo teor de arsénio utilizando tecnologias de Agricultura de Precisão

O projecto ‘Produção de arroz com baixo teor de arsénio utilizando tecnologias de Agricultura de Precisão’ (AP) começou por visar a aplicação de tecnologias de AP com vista à selecção de áreas com maior potencial para a produção de arroz de elevada qualidade, avaliada pelo baixo teor de arsénio no grão. Para tal procedeu-se a dois anos (2010 e 2011) de recolha e medição do arsénio em amostras de arroz (grão) provenientes de cerca de uma centena de parcelas situadas, principalmente, nos concelhos de Vila Franca de Xira e Benavente. Dessas análises sobressaiu uma grande variabilidade dos teores de As entre parcelas mas, também, uma grande variabilidade interanual, susceptível de alterar substancialmente a posição de cada parcela na seriação para cada ano. Nos anos 2012, 2013 e 2014 aprofundou-se a análise da variação espacial e temporal com amostragens mais precisas em 3 canteiros (4 em 2012), sempre nos mesmos pontos, localizados por georreferenciação com recurso a GPS. Nestas parcelas efectuou-se a amostragem e determinação do As no arroz (grão) e no solo. Os resultados das análises do As ao arroz (grão) e ao solo confirmaram uma elevada variabilidade espacial dentro de cada canteiro (com coeficientes de variação que chegam a passar os 40%). Também a variabilidade anual se revelou suficientemente grande para ocorrem diferenças significativas entre anos, no mesmo canteiro. A utilização de diferentes variedades de arroz permitiu determinar diferenças significativas entre variedades no que diz respeito à concentração de As no grão de arroz. Em 2012 recolheram-se amostras da água de rega e da solução do solo nas mesmas parcelas referidas anteriormente. Das análises realizadas verificou-se que a concentração do As da água de rega foi inferior ao limite máximo legal para a água potável (<10 µg/l) mas que a concentração do As na solução do solo foi quase em todos os casos superior àquele limite, chegando a atingir, em alguns registos, um valor quase 10 vezes superior. Incubações anaeróbias realizadas em laboratório com os solos de dois dos canteiros referidos registaram concentrações de As na solução do solo superiores a 100 µg/l ao fim de 60 dias, confirmando as leituras de campo e o solo como principal reserva de As. Realizaram-se ainda ensaios em vasos de duas variedades (Ariete e Gládio), com e sem aplicação de As e com altura normal e altura reduzida de água acima do solo. O As medido nas raízes, folhas e grão do arroz permitiu determinar concentrações decrescentes pela mesma ordem em ambas as variedades. O resultado mais relevante destes ensaios traduz-se na concentração de As nas raízes e folhas 3 a 4 vezes superior na modalidade com altura de água normal comparativamente à modalidade com água mantida ao nível da superfície do solo. No entanto a produção de grão nesta última modalidade foi insuficiente para se poder fazer a análise ao seu teor de As.Proder, Feder/União Europeia, Governo de Portugal, Orivárzea - Orizicultores do Ribatejo, S.A

Sentinel-2 Image Scene Classification over Alentejo Region Farmland

Given the wide-ranging farmland area, optical satellite images of farms are used to develop maps that reflect land dynamics and its behavior over different time frames, crops, and regions on various environmental conditions. In this regard, it is essential to identify and remove atmospheric distorted images to further prevent misleading information, since their presence severely restrict the use of optical satellite images for forecasting harvest dates, yield estimation, and manufacturing control in agriculture systems. These atmospheric distortions are frequent due to cloud, shadow, snow, and water cover over farmland. In this work, we developed a method to identify distortion covering images of corn crop farmland situated in the Alentejo Region of Portugal. The results are compared with the state-of-the-art (SOTA) Sen2Cor algorithm of the European Space Agency. Further, experimental results show that the developed image scene classifier model outperforms Sen2Cor by 10% in F1-measure

Sentinel-2 Image Scene Classification: A Comparison between Sen2Cor and a Machine Learning Approach

Given the continuous increase in the global population, the food manufacturers are advocated to either intensify the use of cropland or expand the farmland, making land cover and land usage dynamics mapping vital in the area of remote sensing. In this regard, identifying and classifying a high-resolution satellite imagery scene is a prime challenge. Several approaches have been proposed either by using static rule-based thresholds (with limitation of diversity) or neural network (with data-dependent limitations). This paper adopts the inductive approach to learning from surface reflectances. A manually labeled Sentinel-2 dataset was used to build a Machine Learning (ML) model for scene classification, distinguishing six classes (Water, Shadow, Cirrus, Cloud, Snow, and Other). This models was accessed and further compared to the European Space Agency (ESA) Sen2Cor package. The proposed ML model presents a Micro-F1 value of 0.84, a considerable improvement when compared to the Sen2Cor corresponding performance of 0.59. Focusing on the problem of optical satellite image scene classification, the main research contributions of this paper are: (a) an extended manually labeled Sentinel-2 database adding surface reflectance values to an existing dataset; (b) an ensemble-based and a Neural-Network-based ML models; (c) an evaluation of model sensitivity, biasness, and diverse ability in classifying multiple classes over different geographic Sentinel-2 imagery, and finally, (d) the benchmarking of the ML approach against the Sen2Cor package

Association between functional EGF+61polymorphism and glioma risk

Epidermal growthf actor (EGF) plays a critical role in cancer. A polymorphism in the EGF gene (EGF+61) may influence its expression and contribute to cancer predisposition and aggressiveness. In the present study, we aimed to elucidate the role of EGF+61in glioma susceptibility and prognosis. Experimental Design:A case-control study involving197 glioma patients and 570 controlswas done. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to calculate odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). False-positive report probability was also assessed.The luciferase reporter gene assay was used to ascertain the functional consequences of this polymorphism. Results: Corroborating the univariate analysis, the multivariate model showed that the G allele conferred higher risks for gliomas (OR,1.32; 95% CI,1.04-1.67), glioblastomas (OR,1.47; 95% CI, 1.02-2.10), and oligodendrogliomas (OR,1.55; 95% CI,1.07-2.23).TheGG genotypeswere associatedwithincreased risk for gliomas (OR,1.71; 95%CI,1.07-2.73), glioblastomas (OR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.02-4.05), and oligodendrogliomas (OR, 2.72; 95% CI, 1.18-6.28). In addition, the AG+GG genotypes were associated withhigher risk for gliomas (OR,1.52; 95% CI,1.03-2.23) and oligodendrogliomas (OR, 2.80; 95% CI,1.35-5.79). No significant associationwas observed between the EGF+61polymorphism and glioblastoma or oligodendroglioma patients’overall survival. The luciferase reporter gene assay exhibited a significant increased promoter activity for the G variant compared withthe referenceA allele. Conclusions: These findings support the role of the EGF+61polymorphism as a susceptibility factor for development of gliomas and show its implication on EGF promoter activity.Sixth Research Framework Programme of the European Union, Project INCA (LSHC-CT-2005-018704

Avaliação da variabilidade das características do solo numa pastagem permanente integrada num projecto de Agricultura de Precisão

O levantamento da variabilidade do solo e da vegetação numa pastagem permanente é a base para a gestão diferenciada da fertilização, a qual é o principal instrumento utilizado pelos agricultores na melhoria das pastagens permanentes no Alentejo. O processo tradicional de amostragem e avaliação das características do solo é muito exigente em termos de tempo, de reagentes necessários nas análises e de trabalho manual, o que pode comprometer um projecto de agricultura de precisão. Este artigo descreve as principais etapas seguidas pelos autores para simplificar a metodologia de avaliação do solo em pastagens permanentes, baseada na utilização de uma sonda de condutividade eléctrica num projecto de agricultura de precisão. Os ensaios decorreram numa parcela de cerca de 6 hectares, a qual foi subdividida em quadrículas de 28m por 28m. As amostras de solo e a avaliação da condutividade eléctrica foram georeferenciadas com o Sistema de Posicionamento Global (GPS). Os dados geoespaciais foram tratados pelo software ArcGis 9.3 e foi utilizada a análise de regressão ponderada geograficamente (Geographically Weighted Regression) obtendo-se valores de coeficientes de determinação interessantes entre o pH e a condutividade eléctrica e ainda entre esta última e a produtividade da pastagem, em termos de matéria seca