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Athanasios Zachariou,1,2 Maria Filiponi,2 Aris Kaltsas,1 Fotios Dimitriadis,3 Vagia Sapouna,2 Ioannis Giannakis,1 Charalampos Mamoulakis,4 Andreas Karagiannis,1 Athanasios Zikopoulos,1 Minas Paschopoulos,5 Atsushi Takenaka,6 Nikolaos Sofikitis1 1Urology Department, Ioannina University, Ioannina, Greece; 2Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre EU PRATTEIN, Volos, Greece; 3 1st Urology Department, School of Medicine, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece; 4Department of Urology, University General Hospital of Heraklion, University of Crete, Medical School, Crete, Greece; 5Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical School, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece; 6Urology Department, School of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago, JapanCorrespondence: Athanasios ZachariouUrology Department, Ioannina University, 3 Spyridi Street, Volos, 38221, GreeceTel +306937227778Fax +302421026932Email zahariou@otenet.grPurpose: The present study aimed to translate the Targeting the individual’s Aetiology of Nocturia to Guide Outcomes Questionnaire (TANGO) into the Greek language to create TANGO-Gr. A relative reliability study in prospective samples of community dwellers and rehabilitation centre residents was undertaken in order to validate the translation. In terms of nocturia severity, these groups were considered to be representative of patients at both ends of the scale, and therefore suitable validation purposes.Patients and Methods: The prospective descriptive study took place between 07 and 09/2020. Fifty residents in a rehabilitation centre and thirty-seven community dwellers were included in the study. All participants had more than one episode of nocturia per night. They were asked to complete the newly translated TANGO-Gr Questionnaire twice (test–retest procedure). TANGO-Gr includes three possible answers (“yes”, “no”, and “DK/NA”) to facilitate increased validity. The study group evaluated the socio and demographic characteristics, the level of independence and the comprehensive frailty of all participants.Results: Both groups satisfactorily completed questionnaire responses. The overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.753 (community-dwelling people: 0.776; rehabilitation centre residents: 0.531). A test–retest statistical analysis to determine reliability found an overall median Kappa of 0.88 (IQR: 0.79– 0.94) in community dwellers and 0.91 (IQR: 0.84– 1.00) in rehabilitation centre residents, thereby confirming an almost perfect respective agreement.Conclusion: The validity of the newly translated TANGO-Gr Questionnaire was proven. It should be considered to be a reliable, self-administered screening tool suitable for clinical practice, and therefore invaluable for Greek-speaking people. The study also determined that certain environment-related variables may contribute to nocturia in rehabilitation centre populations, which is a finding which invites further study.Keywords: nocturia, TANGO Questionnaire, translation, validation, Greek

The importance of street trees in the urban environment is widely recognised. Nevertheless, the absence of proper urban planning, combined with lack of resources and methodologies for road maintenance, have made the interaction between trees and the urban environment as a priority task to pursue. The uncontrolled development of tree roots can cause extensive damage, such as the cracking and uplifting of pavement and curbs, that could seriously endanger safety of pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. Within this framework, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has already proven its effectiveness for the non-destructive evaluation and monitoring of road pavements. This research aims to demonstrate the potential of GPR in mapping the root system architecture of street trees. To this purpose, a GPR system equipped with a 700 MHz central frequency antenna was used to survey the area around a street tree (natural soil and flexible pavement structure). A multistage data processing methodology is proposed to map the tree root system architecture. Moreover, information on the mass density of roots at different depths is also provided. Results have proven the viability of the proposed method for root detection and mapping under road pavements. Analyses of results have also proven the potential of GPR in identifying safety-related occurrences from the interaction between the root system and the existing pavement structure.

Introduction: iTIND is a minimal-invasive and fast procedure for treatment of LUTS. There are concerns regarding iTIND-treatment of LUTS patient with larger volume glands, median lobe or acute urinary retention concluding it is a bladder neck procedure (MT-01; MT-02). Aim of the study: assessment[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 60. Jahrestagung der Südwestdeutschen Gesellschaft für Urologie e.V.

We study the Anderson Localization effect on the shear viscosity in a system with random medium by Kubo formula. We show that this effect can reduce the shear viscosity nonperturbatively. Then we discuss its possible implementation in heavy-ion collisions, where the created heavy bound states or other collective modes may play the role of the random scatterer underlying Anderson Localization effect., Comment: typos corrected,references added,figures updated

Ash dieback, acute oak decline (AOD), and Xylella Fastidiosa are emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) that have spread rapidly in European forests during the last decade. Quarantine measurements have mostly failed to repress the outbreaks and millions of trees have already been infected. Identifying infected trees in a nondestructive manner is of high importance for monitoring, managing, and preventing EIDs. The aim of this article is to examine the capabilities of ground penetrating radar (GPR) on evaluating the internal structure of tree trunks and detecting tree decay associated with EIDs. Traditionally used processing schemes tuned for GPR line acquisitions are modified accordingly to be compatible with the new measurement configurations. In particular, a detection framework is presented based on a modified Kirchhoff and a reverse-time migration. Both of the aforementioned methodologies are compatible with measurements taken along closed irregular curves assuming a homogeneous permittivity distribution. To that extent, prior to migration, a novel focal criterion is used that estimates the bulk permittivity of the host medium from the measured B-scans. The suggested detection scheme is successfully tested on both numerical and laboratory measurements, indicating that GPR has the potential to become a coherent and practical tool for detecting tree decay associated with EIDs.

The preservation of natural assets is nowadays an essential commitment. In this regard, root systems are endangered by fungal diseases which can undermine the health and stability of trees. Within this framework, ground penetrating radar (GPR) is emerging as a reliable non-destructive method for root investigation. A coherent GPR-based root-detection framework is presented in this paper. The proposed methodology is a multi-stage data analysis system that is applied to semi-circular measurements collected around the investigated tree. In the first step, the raw data are processed by applying several standard and advanced signal processing techniques in order to reduce noise-related information. In the second stage, the presence of any discontinuity element within the survey area is investigated by analysing the signal reflectivity. Then, a tracking algorithm aimed at identifying patterns compatible with tree roots is implemented. Finally, the mass density of roots is estimated by means of continuous functions in order to achieve a more realistic representation of the root paths and to identify their length in a continuous and more realistic domain. The method was validated in a case study in London (UK), where the root system of a real tree was surveyed using GPR and a soil test pit was excavated for validation purposes. Results support the feasibility of the data processing framework implemented in this study.

In this paper, we have presented a methodology combining ground penetrating radar (GPR) and a low-cost GPS receiver for three-dimensional detection of tree roots. This research aims to provide an effective and affordable testing tool to assess the root system of a number of trees. For this purpose, a low-cost GPS receiver was used, which recorded the approximate position of each GPR track, collected with a 500 MHz RAMAC shielded antenna. A dedicated post-processing methodology based on the precise position of the satellite data, satellite clock offsets data, and a local reference Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Earth Observation Network System (GEONET) Station close to the survey site was developed. Firstly, the positioning information of local GEONET stations was used to filter out the errors caused by satellite position error, satellite clock offset, and ionosphere. In addition, the advanced Kalman filter was designed to minimise receiver offset and the multipath error, in order to obtain a high precision position of each GPR track. Kirchhoff migration considering near-field effect was used to identify the three-dimensional distribution of the root. In a later stage, a novel processing scheme was used to detect and clearly map the coarse roots of the investigated tree. A successful case study is proposed, which supports the following premise: the current scheme is an affordable and accurate mapping method of the root system architecture.

Modern socioeconomic factors such as global timber trade and international travelling have contributed to the rapid increase of Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) of trees with devastating effects to the European forests and woodlands. To that extent, numerous non-destructive methodologies have been suggested as diagnostic tools in order to effectively monitor and maintain potential outbreaks. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is an appealing method for tree monitoring as it provides with a trivially deployable and efficient detection tool, suitable for large-scale forestry applications. Nonetheless, traditional GPR approaches are tuned for surface measurements and they are not compatible with the unique measurement configurations associated with forestry applications. Within that context, we present a novel-processing framework, which is capable of addressing features with irregular measurements on closed surfaces. A positioning method is described that exploits a wheel-measuring device in order to accurately associate each A-Scan with its corresponding coordinates. In addition, a processing pipeline is presented that aims at eliminating the ringing noise due to the layered nature of the trees. Lastly, a reverse-time migration is applied to the processed B-Scan in order to effectively map the reflectors present within the trunk. The suggested scheme is successfully tested in both numerical and real-field experiments, indicating the validity of the current approach.

Aggressive fungal and insect attacks have reached an alarming level, threatening a variety of tree species, such as ash and oak trees, in the United Kingdom and beyond. In this context, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has proven to be an effective non-invasive tool, capable of generating information about the inner structure of tree trunks in terms of existence, location, and geometry of defects. Nevertheless, it had been observed that the currently available and known GPR-related processing and data interpretation methods and tools are able to provide only limited information regarding the existence of defects and anomalies within the tree inner structure. In this study, we present a microwave tomographic approach for improved GPR data processing with the aim of detecting and characterising the geometry of decay and cavities in trees. The microwave tomographic approach is able to pinpoint explicitly the position of the measurement points on the tree surface and thus to consider the actual geometry of the sections beyond the classical (circular) ones. The robustness of the microwave tomographic approach with respect to noise and data uncertainty is tackled by exploiting a regularised scheme in the inversion process based on the Truncated Singular Value Decomposition (TSVD). A demonstration of the potential of the microwave tomography approach is provided for both simulated data and measurements collected in controlled conditions. First, the performance analysis was carried out by processing simulated data achieved by means of a Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) in three scenarios characterised by different geometric trunk shapes, internal trunk configurations and target dimensions. Finally, the method was validated on a real trunk by proving the viability of the proposed approach in identifying the position of cavities and decay in tree trunks.

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is traditionally applied to smooth surfaces in which the assumption of half-space is an adequate approximation that does not deviate much from reality. Nonetheless, using GPR for internal structure characterization of tree trunks requires measurements on an irregularly shaped closed curve. A typical hyperbola fitting has no physical meaning in this new context since the reflection patterns are strongly associated with the shape of the tree trunk. Instead of a clinical hyperbola, the reflections give rise to complex-shaped patterns that are difficult to be analyzed even in the absence of clutter. In this paper, a novel processing scheme is described which can interpret complex reflection patterns assuming a circular target subject to any arbitrary shaped surface. The proposed methodology can be applied using commercial hand-held antennas in real time, avoiding computationally costly tomographic approaches that require the usage of custom-made bespoke antenna arrays. The validity of the current approach is illustrated both with numerical and real experiments.

Summary A variety of tree species, such as ash and oak trees, are nowadays under serious threat in the United Kingdom and European territories as a result of the action of aggressive fungal diseases. To this effect, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is an effective geophysical tool capable of collecting information on the internal structure of trees. Nevertheless, traditional processing methods can provide only limited indications for health monitoring purposes. In this study, a demonstration of the GPR potential and the use of a tomographic inversion approach in detecting decay and cavities is provided. In that context, a set of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations of different complexity (i.e. internal trunk configurations and dimensions of the targets) were used to assess the performance of the proposed strategy. The results prove the viability of the proposed approach in identifying the position of cavities and decay in tree trunks.