SIRIO : Integrated Forest Firesmonitoring, detection and decision supportsystem with low cost commercial sensorssuited for complex orography

Forest Fires in our society cause a lot of damage, in particular regarding the economic and environmental landscape. In order to monitor a large portion of territory automatically, with a good cost/performances trade-off, it is necessary to develop new early warning systems. We propose a ground-based system with modular architecture, equipped with low cost commercial sensor. The idea is to develop the software able to manage the forest fires monitoring. The technique is based on Static and Dynamic analysis of chromatic changes between images, tailored for our case of study in a large scale monitoring of vegetation and using different sensors to reduce or eliminate the false alarm rate. Concerning the image geo-referencing tool, the present work describes an innovative projective geo-referencing algorithm able to geo-reference complex orography regions using fixed ground station images. Besides, it does not need the collection of Ground Control Points, which is a very hard task in complex orography environments. In order to make a user oriented product and to help the operator during extinguishing activities, a decision support tool has been developed as well. This work presents the results of one year monitoring campaign conducted in cooperation with the Civil Protection Offices in Sanremo (IM), Ital

The Young Age And Plant-Based Diet Hypothesis For Low Sars-Cov-2 Infection And Covid-19 Pandemic In Sub-Saharan Africa

Since the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that caused the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), in December 2019, the infection has spread around the globe. Some of the risk factors include social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing with soap, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, asthma, cardiovascular disease, and dysbiosis. Evidence has shown the incidence of total infection and death rates to be lower in sub-Saharan Africa when compared with North Africa, Europe and North America and many other parts of the world. The higher the metabolic syndrome rate, the higher the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Africa has a lower rate of metabolic syndrome risk than many other continents. This paradox has puzzled several in the biomedical and scientific communities. Published results of research have demonstrated the exciting correlation that the combination of young age of the population coupled with their native plant-based diet has lowered their risk factors. The plant-based diet include whole grains (millet, sorghum), legumes (black-eye peas, dry beans, soybean), vegetables, potato, sweet potato, yams, squash, banana, pumpkin seeds, and moringa leaves, and lower consumption of meat. The plant-based diet results in a different gut microbiota than of most of the rest of the world. This has a significant impact on the survival rate of other populations. The plant-based diet results in lower rates of obesity, diabetes and dysbiosis, which could contribute to lower and less severe infections. However, these hypotheses need to be supported by more clinical and biostatistics data

How land title affects child labor ?

Secure property rights are considered a key determinant of economic development. However, evaluation of the causal effects of land titling is a difficult task. Since 2004, the Brazilian government, through a program called"Papel Passado,"has issued titles to more than 85,000 families and has the goal to reach 750,000. Another topic in public policy that is crucial for developing economies is child labor force participation. In Brazil, about 5.4 million children and teenagers between 5 and 17 years old are working full time. This paper examines the direct impact of securing a property title on child labor force participation. In order to isolate the causal role of ownership security, this study uses a comparison between two close and similar communities in the City of Osasco case (a town with 650,000 people in the São Paulo metropolitan area). The key point of this case is that some units participate in the program and others do not. One of them, Jardim Canaã, received land titles in 2007; the other, Jardim DR, given fiscal constraints, will not be part of the program until 2012, and for that reason became the control group. Estimates, generated using the difference-in-difference econometric technique suggest that titling results in a substantial decrease in child labor force participation for the families that received the title compared with the others. These findings are relevant for future policy tools for dealing with informality and how it affects economic growth.Labor Policies,Access to Finance,,Debt Markets,Gender and Law

Some Notes on How Land Title Affects Child Labor

Secure property rights are considered a key determinant of economic development. However, evaluation of the causal effects of land titling is a difficult task. Since 2004, a program called “Papel Passado” has issued titles to more than over 85,000 families and has the goal to reach 750,000. This paper examines the direct impact of securing a property title on child labor force participation. This study uses a comparison between two close and similar communities in the City of Osasco case. The key point of this case is that some units participate in the program and others do not. Estimates, generated using difference-in-difference econometric technique suggest that titling results in a substantial decrease in child labor force participation for the families that received the title compared with the others. This findings are relevant for future policy tools for dealing with informality and how it affects economic growth.Investment Property Rights, Land Titling, Child Labor ForceJournal:Economia

Impact on adherence of a telephone follow up strategy in HIV-naïve patients who start antiretroviral therapy: cohort study

Antiretroviral therapy changed the prognosis of people living with HIV/AIDS. However, lack of adherence jeopardizes the success of antiretroviral therapy and enhances the development of treatment-resistant strains, treatment failure, and therefore it stands as a public health problem. The main goal of this study was to measure the impact on treatment discontinuations and lost to follow up, of a telephone follow-up strategy in naïve patients who start antiretroviral therapy. We conducted a single-site, cohort study during a 12-month period (May 2011–May 2012). A prospective cohort of naïve patients received the standard of care plus a specific telephone follow-up strategy. Results were compared with a retrospective cohort of naïve patients followed up at the same site, who started antiretroviral therapy receiving only the standard of care during a similar period (January–December 2009). We used descriptive statistics and Fisher exact test for the comparisons of variables. We enrolled 41 patients in the prospective cohort and 50 in the retrospective one. Both cohorts had similar general characteristics. We found a lower number of patients who were lost to follow up in the prospective cohort (intervention) consistent with lower rates of treatment abandonment, suspensions and a similar tendency for events, including death, even when none of these findings was statistically significant. Baseline characteristics and main results are shown in the table below. Further randomized studies should be conducted applying a telephone follow-up strategy to confirm these findings

Increased growth rate of anodic porous alumina by use of ionic liquid as electrolyte additive

The use of ionic liquids 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethyl sulfate and 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoborate has been tested in the fabrication of anodic porous alumina. The anodizations of the aluminium substrate have been carried out in oxalic acid in galvanostatic mode. During anodization with 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoborate added electrolyte, proper tuning of the current density and of the additive concentration resulted in a three-fold increase of the growth rate as compared to the bare acidic solution with the same acid concentration. This did not cause cracks in the film during growth, and did not affect the regular structure of the pores at the interface with the substrate