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Abstract Cancer cachexia (CC) is a multifactorial syndrome driven by inflammation, defined by ongoing loss of skeletal muscle mass (with or without loss of fat mass) that cannot be fully reversed by conventional nutritional support. CC leads to progressive functional impairment, with its clinical management complicated and limited therapeutic options available. The objective of this review was to assess the efficacy and safety of non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on patient‐centred outcomes in patients with CC. In 2013, two systematic reviews concluded that there was insufficient evidence to recommend NSAIDs for clinical management of CC outside of clinical trials. However, clinical trials of multi‐component CC interventions have included NSAIDs as an intervention component, so an up‐to‐date assessment of the evidence for NSAIDs in the treatment of CC is warranted. Four databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL and CINAHL) and three trial registers (clinicaltrials.gov, WHO ICTRP and ISRCTN) were searched on 16 December 2022. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing any NSAID (any dose or duration) with a control arm, in adult patients with CC, reporting measures of body weight, body composition, nutrition impact symptoms, inflammation, physical function or fatigue, were eligible for inclusion. Primary outcomes (determined with patient involvement) were survival, changes in muscle strength, body composition, body weight and quality of life. Included studies were assessed for risk of bias using the Revised Cochrane risk‐of‐bias tool for randomized trials. Five studies were included, which investigated Indomethacin (n = 1), Ibuprofen (n = 1) and Celecoxib (n = 3). Four studies were judged to be at high risk of bias for all outcomes, with one study raising concerns for most outcomes. Considerable clinical and methodological heterogeneity amongst the studies meant that meta‐analysis was not appropriate. There was insufficient evidence to determine whether Indomethacin or Ibuprofen is effective or safe for use in patients with CC; RCTs with lower risk of bias are needed. Celecoxib studies indicated it was safe for use in this population at the doses tested (200–400 mg/day) but found contrasting results regarding efficacy, potentially reflecting heterogeneity amongst the studies. There is inadequate evidence to recommend any NSAID for CC. While current clinical trials for CC treatments are shifting towards multi‐component interventions, further research to determine the efficacy and safety of NSAIDs alone is necessary if they are to be included in such multi‐component interventions. Furthermore, the lack of data on patient‐determined primary outcomes in this review highlights the need for patient involvement in clinical trials for CC.

Summary: Background & Aims: Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a novel anti-cancer treatment option for patients with refractory or relapsed haematological malignancies. Preliminary research shows a significant proportion of patients receiving CAR T-cell therapy develop malnutrition and cachexia during treatment, with these nutritional issues associated with adverse patient outcomes. There is a lack of literature and no specific validated measures on patient experience and burden of symptoms for CAR T-cell therapy patients as well as the importance of clinical outcomes for these patients. Patient and public involvement (PPI) is a fundamental feature of proper research execution as it informs issues in the research that are most important in patients. The aim of this review was to identify priority patient-reported outcome measures in CAR T-cell therapy patients using PPI, in addition to exploring patient experiences, burden of symptoms, priorities, and knowledge of nutritional priorities in cancer. The PPI outcomes will also aid to inform the design and development of a future novel cohort study. Methods: Using participatory research (PPI), six adults aged 26–70 years who have received CAR T-cell therapy in the past two years, participated in one-to-one interviews. The interview questions were focused on the aims of identifying patient recommendations regarding clinical outcome measures of interest, their relevance to patient's experience of CAR T-cell therapy, and optimal design of the future cohort research protocol. Results: Eight main themes were identified through the interviews: unfamiliarity of terms malnutrition and cachexia; weight loss during treatment not considered a main concern; exercise deemed a main priority in all participants; fatigue as the main side effect; importance of survival, psychosocial concerns; nutritional supplementation issues and dissatisfaction in hospital food. Conclusions: The responses have revealed that the themes of exercise, fatigue, intensity of side effects and survival were deemed as highly important in all participants. In addition, consideration should be placed on the psychosocial concerns of participants in the future cohort study regarding assessments that may have higher patient burden, such as indirect calorimetry and body composition assessments. Moreover, reports regarding nutritional supplementation along with hospital meals provided during treatment, have shown that they are not fulfilling the participants' satisfaction and priorities. Future research undertaken in the novel area of CAR T-cell therapy should take measures to focus on these outcomes of importance to participants, to minimise burden and provide adequate support.

Terracing is found widely in the Mediterranean and in other hilly and mountainous regions of the world. Yet while archaeological attention to these 'mundane' landscape features has grown, they remain understudied, particularly in Northern Europe. Here, the authors present a multidisciplinary study of terraces in the Breamish Valley, Northumberland. The results date their construction to the Early to Middle Bronze Age, when they were built by cutting back the hillside, stone clearance and wall constmction. Environmental evidence points to their use for cereal cultivation. The authors suggest that the constmction and use of these terraces formed part of an Early to Middle Bronze Age agricultural intensification, which may have been both demographically and culturally driven. Keywords: Britain, Bronze Age, prehistoric agriculture, landscape history, environmental archaeology, pOSL, phytoliths, pollen, Introduction In aggregate, the construction of agricultural terraces represents one of the most substantial engineering projects prior to the advent of urbanisation. Yet, terraces are typically regarded as a 'natural' [...]

Summary: Steep-slope agricultural landscapes cover a small fraction of global agricultural areas.1 Despite the limited coverage, they are relevant for high-quality food and wine production, history, and landscape value. On steep slopes, centuries of effort and tradition have created a unique cultural heritage to be preserved. Here, peculiar traditional local knowledge of soil and water conservation combined with agronomic practices (e.g., dry-stone wall terracing) has been handed down for generations. However, such landscapes are fragile and under threat.

Superconducting (SC) tokamak JT-60SA plays an essential role in fusion research and development by supporting and complementing the ITER project, providing directions to the DEMO design activity and fostering next generation scientists and engineers. Since the short circuit incident at the terminal joints of equilibrium field coil #1 during the integrated commissioning (IC) in March 2021, both EU and JA implementing agencies (IAs) have examined how to ensure safe operation of JT-60SA by mitigating the risk of possible discharge occurrence inside the cryostat. Based on the experience of the global Paschen tests, the IAs have established a strategy of risk mitigation measures, which is a combination of (i) reinforcement of insulation, (ii) avoiding unnecessary voltage application to the coil systems and (iii) immediate de-energization of the coils when deteriorated vacuum conditions are detected. Thanks to the considerable efforts of the Integrated Project Team members, the IC restarted in May 2023. After confirmation of the SC state of the coil systems (TF, EF and CS), the coil energization test and the plasma operation phase 1 (OP-1) started. The first plasma was successfully achieved on 23 October 2023 with a limited value of voltage and current applied to the coils. The plasma configuration control was also confirmed with low plasma current and low auxiliary heating power conditions. Based on the IO–F4E–QST collaboration, activities of JT-60SA have been shared with the IO and provided an important lesson for ITER assembly and commissioning, and will provide an outstanding contribution to fusion research at large. After OP-1, maintenance & enhancement phase 1 (M/E-1) starts from January 2024, in which in-vessel components are installed, and heating and diagnostic systems are extensively upgraded to allow a high power heating experiment planned in OP-2. In order to make the best use of JT-60SA, a newly organized JT-60SA experiment team will refine the research plan for the future high heating power operation phase.

An overview is presented of the progress since 2021 in the construction and scientific programme preparation of the Divertor Tokamak Test (DTT) facility. Licensing for building construction has been granted at the end of 2021. Licensing for Cat. A radiologic source has been also granted in 2022. The construction of the toroidal field magnet system is progressing. The prototype of the 170 GHz gyrotron has been produced and it is now under test on the FALCON facility. The design of the vacuum vessel, the poloidal field coils and the civil infrastructures has been completed. The shape of the first DTT divertor has been agreed with EUROfusion to test different plasma and exhaust scenarios: single null, double null, X-divertor and negative triangularity plasmas. A detailed research plan is being elaborated with the involvement of the EUROfusion laboratories.

Abstract The aim of this review was to assess diagnostic and treatment challenges of adolescents with SI joint pain. We diagnosed 13 of the patients who were referred to our chronic pain clinic because of low back pain (30%) with SI joint pain based on provocative tests response. We performed SI joint steroid infiltration. Six patients (46%) felt better immediately after the procedure and 1 (8%) patient had a one‐side only pain relief after a bilateral block. Four of these patients (31%) did not experience any further episode of pain during the follow‐up and three patients reported recurring pain on average 2 months after the initial procedure. The 2nd procedure was successful in two patients and the third one experienced pain again 12 months later, requiring a third successful infiltration. Six patients (46%) experienced pain again within a few hours or days after the infiltration and their pain score were unchanged compared with what they had reported prior to the procedure. We were unable to place the needle within the joint under fluoroscopy in 1 patient; however, we were successful repeating the procedure under CT guidance. One patient experienced a motor and sensory block in the distribution of the sciatic nerve immediately after the procedure, which resolved within 24 and 48 hours, respectively. SI joint pain is a distinctive pathology that can be present in children and adolescents and is often overlooked by practitioners. Its diagnosis and management are challenging in this population as it is in adults. SI joint steroids injections may play a role in the management of these patients.

Objective To estimate health inequity and vulnerability among Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMD) in Latin America using the syndemic approach.Design This is a secondary analysis of a previously published large-scale study on the prevalence of RMD.Setting Studies carried out in five Latin American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela). Health inequity and vulnerability in RMD were identified through a syndemic approach using network and cluster analysis.Participants A total of 44 560 individuals were studied: 29.78% self-identified as Indigenous, 60.92% were female, the mean age was 43.25 years. Twenty clusters were identified in the Indigenous population and 17 in the non-Indigenous population.Results The variables associated with RMD among Indigenous populations were rurality, public health system, high joint biomechanical stress, greater pain, disability and alcoholism; and among non-Indigenous people they were being a woman, urban origin, older age, private health system, joint biomechanical stress, greater pain and disability. We identified different health inequities among patients with RMD (ie, lower educational attainment, more comorbidities), associated with factors such as Indigenous self-identification and rural residence.Conclusions A syndemic approach enables us to identify health inequities in RMD, as shown by higher prevalence of comorbidities, disability and socioeconomic factors like lower educational attainment. These inequities exist for the overall population of patients with RMD, although it is more evident in Indigenous groups with added layers of vulnerability.

Being the most common human-created landforms, terrace construction has resulted in an extensive perturbation of the land surface. However, our mechanistic understanding of soil organic carbon (SOC) (de-)stabilization mechanisms and the persistence of SOC stored in terraced soils is far from complete. Here we explored the factors controlling SOC stability and the temperature sensitivity (Q10) of abandoned prehistoric agricultural terrace soils in NE England using soil fractionation and temperature-sensitive incubation combined with terrace soil burial-age measurements. Results showed that although buried terrace soils contained 1.7 times more unprotected SOC (i.e., coarse particulate organic carbon) than non-terraced soils at comparable soil depths, a significantly lower potential soil respiration was observed relative to a control (non-terraced) profile. This suggests that the burial of former topsoil due to terracing provided a mechanism for stabilizing SOC. Furthermore, we observed a shift in SOC fraction composition from particulate organic C towards mineral-protected C with increasing burial age. This clear shift to more processed recalcitrant SOC with soil burial age also contributes to SOC stability in terraced soils. Temperature sensitivity incubations revealed that the dominant controls on Q10 depend on the terrace soil burial age. At relatively younger ages of soil burial, the reduction in substrate availability due to SOC mineral protection with aging attenuates the intrinsic Q10 of SOC decomposition. However, as terrace soil becomes older, SOC stocks in deep buried horizons are characterized by a higher temperature sensitivity, potentially resulting from the poor SOC quality (i.e., soil C:N ratio). In conclusion, terracing in our study site has stabilized SOC as a result of soil burial during terrace construction. The depth–age patterns of Q10 and SOC fraction composition of terraced soils observed in our study site differ from those seen in non-terraced soils, and this has implications when assessing the effects of climate warming and terrace abandonment on the terrestrial C cycle.

Introducción: la capilaroscopia es un método no invasivo que permite observar la microvasculatura en el área periungueal. Los resultados informados pueden ser altamente variables entre distintos observadores. A lo largo del tiempo surgieron métodos cuantitativos y semicuantitativos para mejorar la reproducibilidad. Objetivos: conocer el nivel de acuerdo intra e interobservador al informar los diferentes patrones capilaroscópicos en individuos con diferente nivel de entrenamiento. Materiales y métodos: estudio de corte transversal. Participaron médicos reumatólogos especialistas y en formación que habían realizado previamente un curso virtual de capacitación en capilaroscopia. Recibieron 40 imágenes capilaroscópicas proyectadas en una presentación de PowerPoint y debían responder a través de un cuestionario digital. Se evaluó la concordancia de respuestas intra e interobservador. Resultados: se encontró un alto nivel de concordancia global con un kappa 0,66 IC 95% (0,63-0,70) p

Introducción: se ha reportado que la prevalencia de artritis reumatoidea (AR) en la comunidad Wichí representa la más alta informada por el Grupo Latinoamericano para el Estudio de las Enfermedades Reumáticas en los Pueblos Originarios (GLADERPO). El objetivo de este estudio fue describir la experiencia sobre el proceso de salud- enfermedad-atención de pacientes con AR de la comunidad Wichí de Misión Chaqueña “El Algarrobal”, Salta. Materiales y métodos: estudio narrativo. Diseño de corte etnográfico. Se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas y observaciones registradas. Se utilizaron guías de entrevistas y observación. Los aspectos incluidos fueron: concepción del proceso salud-enfermedad, percepción de la AR en la vida diaria, el acceso al sistema de salud, utilización de recursos tradicionales y de medicina tradicional.

BackgroundMachine learning uses algorithms that improve automatically through experience. This statistical learning approach is a natural extension of traditional statistical methods and can offer potential advantages for certain problems. The feasibility of using machine learning techniques in health care is predicated on access to a sufficient volume of data in a problem space. ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the feasibility of data collection from an adolescent population before and after a posterior spine fusion operation. MethodsBoth physical and psychosocial data were collected. Adolescents scheduled for a posterior spine fusion operation were approached when they were scheduled for the surgery. The study collected repeated measures of patient data, including at least 2 weeks prior to the operation and 6 months after the patients were discharged from the hospital. Patients were provided with a Fitbit Charge 4 (consumer-grade health tracker) and instructed to wear it as often as possible. A third-party web-based portal was used to collect and store the Fitbit data, and patients were trained on how to download and sync their personal device data on step counts, sleep time, and heart rate onto the web-based portal. Demographic and physiologic data recorded in the electronic medical record were retrieved from the hospital data warehouse. We evaluated changes in the patients’ psychological profile over time using several validated questionnaires (ie, Pain Catastrophizing Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, and Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory). Questionnaires were administered to patients using Qualtrics software. Patients received the questionnaire prior to and during the hospitalization and again at 3 and 6 months postsurgery. We administered paper-based questionnaires for the self-report of daily pain scores and the use of analgesic medications. ResultsThere were several challenges to data collection from the study population. Only 38% (32/84) of the patients we approached met eligibility criteria, and 50% (16/32) of the enrolled patients dropped out during the follow-up period—on average 17.6 weeks into the study. Of those who completed the study, 69% (9/13) reliably wore the Fitbit and downloaded data into the web-based portal. These patients also had a high response rate to the psychosocial surveys. However, none of the patients who finished the study completed the paper-based pain diary. There were no difficulties accessing the demographic and clinical data stored in the hospital data warehouse. ConclusionsThis study identifies several challenges to long-term medical follow-up in adolescents, including willingness to participate in these types of studies and compliance with the various data collection approaches. Several of these challenges—insufficient incentives and personal contact between researchers and patients—should be addressed in future studies.

The development and availability on consumer devices of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) have dramatically changed the everyday-life of most of the human population, enabling real time navigation on almost any smart device produced in the last years. However, such strong dependence on the availability of the GNSS limits the further spread of location based services to the areas where GNSS is not available or reliable. Motivated by these considerations, several research groups recently considered the problem of developing alternative positioning systems able to compensate the unavailability of GNSS in certain areas. Similarly, this paper also investigates the performance of certain alternative methods, which aim at partially substitute GNSS. In particular, the positioning performance of an affordable Ultra Wide-Band system is compared with that of a vision approach, based on the use of visual information acquired by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flying over the area of interest. In accordance with the results obtained in our dataset, the drone-based vision system usually allow to obtain better positioning results when the pedestrians are visible in the drone video frames (median 2D positioning error less than 25 cm). Nevertheless, the combination of such strategies shall also be investigated in order to obtain a more robust positioning system.

In recent years, portable Mobile Mapping Systems (MMSs) are emerging as valuable survey instruments for fast and efficient mapping of both internal and external environments. The aim of this work is to assess the performance of a commercial handheld MMS, Gexcel HERON Lite, in two different outdoor applications. The first is the mapping of a large building, which represents a standard use-case scenario of this technology. Through the second case study, that consists in the survey of a torrent reach, we investigate instead the applicability of the handheld MMS for natural environment monitoring, a field in which portable systems are not yet widely employed. Quantitative and qualitative assessment is presented, comparing the point clouds obtained from the HERON Lite system against reference models provided by traditional techniques (i.e., Terrestrial Laser Scanning and Photogrammetry).

Zeise’s salt derivatives of the potassium trichlorido[η2-((prop-2-en/but-3-en)-1-yl)-2-acetoxybenzoate]platinate(II) type (ASA-Prop-PtCl3/ASA-But-PtCl3 derivatives) were synthesized and characterized regarding their structure, stability, and biological activity. It is proposed that the leads ASA-Prop-PtCl3 and ASA-But-PtCl3 interfere with the arachidonic acid cascade as part of their mode of action to reduce the growth of COX-1/2-expressing tumor cells. With the aim to increase the antiproliferative activity by strengthening the inhibitory potency against COX-2, F, Cl, or CH3 substituents were introduced into the acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) moiety. Each structural modification improved COX-2 inhibition. Especially compounds with F substituents at ASA-But-PtCl3 reached the maximum achievable inhibition of about 70% already at 1 µM. The PGE2 formation in COX-1/2-positive HT-29 cells was suppressed by all F/Cl/CH3 derivatives, indicating COX inhibitory potency in cellular systems. The CH3-bearing complexes showed the highest cytotoxicity in COX-1/2-positive HT-29 cells with IC50 values of 16–27 µM. In COX-negative MCF-7 cells, they were 2–3-fold less active. These data clearly demonstrate that it is possible to increase the cytotoxicity of ASA-Prop-PtCl3 and ASA-But-PtCl3 derivatives by enhancing COX-2 inhibition.

This paper presents debris-flow data recorded in the Moscardo Torrent (eastern Italian Alps) between 1990 and 2019. In this time interval, 30 debris flows were observed: 26 of them were monitored by sensors installed on the channel, while four were only documented through post-event observations. Monitored data consist of debris-flow hydrographs, measured utilizing ultrasonic sensors, and rainfall. Debris flows in the Moscardo Torrent occur from early June to the end of September, with higher frequency in the first part of summer. The paper presents data on triggering rainfall, flow velocity, peak discharge, and volume for the monitored hydrographs. Simplified triangular hydrographs and dimensionless hydrographs were derived to show the basic features of the debris flows in the Moscardo Torrent (time to peak, surge duration, flow depth) and permitting comparison with other instrumented catchments. The dataset is made available to the public with the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.919707.

High-Resolution Topography (HRT) data sets are becoming increasingly available, improving our ability and opportunities to monitor geomorphic changes through multi-temporal Digital Terrain Models (DTMs). The use of repeated topographic surveys enables inferring the sediment dynamics of hazardous geomorphic processes such as floods, debris flows, and landslides, and allows us to derive important information on the risks often associated with these processes. The topographic surveying platforms, georeferencing systems, and processing tools have seen important developments in the last two decades, in particular Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) technology used in Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) and Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS). Moreover, HRT data, produced through these techniques, changed a lot in terms of point cloud density, accuracy and precision over time. Therefore, old “legacy” data sets and recent surveys can often show comparison problems, especially when multi-temporal data are not homogeneous in terms of quality and uncertainties. In this context, data co-registration should be used to guarantee the coherence among multi-temporal surveys, minimizing, on stable areas, the distance between corresponding points acquired at different epochs. Although several studies highlight that this process is fundamental to properly compare multi-temporal DTMs, it is often not addressed in LiDAR post-processing workflows. In this paper we focus on the alignment of multi-temporal surveys in a topographically complex and rugged environment as the Moscardo debris-flow catchment (Eastern Italian Alps), testing various co-registration methods to align multi-temporal ALS point clouds (i.e. years 2003, 2009 and 2013) and the derived DTMs. In particular, we tested the pairwise registration with manual correspondences, the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm and a mathematical model that allows aligning simultaneously a generic number of point clouds, the so-called Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA), also in its GPA-ICP variant. Then, to correct the possible small inaccuracies generated from the gridding interpolation process, a custom-developed DTM co-registration tool (GRD-CoReg) was used to align gridded data. Both alignment phases (i.e. at point cloud and DTM level) proved to be fundamental and allowed us to obtain proper and reliable DTMs of Difference (DoDs), useful to quantify the debris mobilized and to detect the spatial and temporal patterns of catchment-scale erosion and deposition. The consistency of DoDs data was verified through the comparison between the erosion estimate of DoDs and the volumes of debris-flow events measured by the monitoring station close to the Moscardo torrent catchment outlet. The GPA-ICP algorithm followed by the GRD-CoReg tool proved to be the most effective solution for improving DoDs results with a decrease of systematic trend due to vertical and horizontal uncertainties between surveys, especially at steep slopes. The net volume difference (i.e. the sediment output from the catchment) of the 2003–2013 period changed from 3,237,896 m3 to 135,902 m3 in DoDs obtained from not co-registered and co-registered DTMs. The volume of debris flows measured at the catchment outlet during the same time interval amounts to 169,660 m3. The comparison with debris-flow volume measures at the monitoring station shows, therefore, that the DTMs obtained from the co-registration processes generate more reliable DoDs than those obtained from the raw DTMs (without the alignment).

Resumen Introducción y objetivo La mamoplastia de aumento con prótesis es una de las cirugías más realizadas en Cirugía Plástica. El objetivo del presente trabajo es mostrar nuestra técnica anestésica para colocación de prótesis mamarias en plano submuscular, bloqueando de forma intraoperatoria ramos del plexo braquial y recoger nuestra experiencia con ella en una serie de casos. Material y método Bajo sedación y anestesia local, realizamos una incisión en el borde periareolar inferior llegando por divulsión y corte transglandular hasta el plano de la aponeurosis del músculo pectoral mayor; apertura de 5 cm de la aponeurosis y divulsión de las fibras musculares siguiendo su dirección; identificamos el plano entre el músculo pectoral mayor y el pectoral menor; introducimos una cánula de Klein en ese plano hasta el punto anatómico donde están las ramas lateral y medial del plexo braquial (2 cm por debajo de la clavícula y en su tercio lateral); inyección en ese punto del preparado de solución anestésica. Analizamos 172 pacientes operadas entre enero de 2014 y abril del 2018 en las que empleamos el procedimiento anestésico descrito. Resultados En todas las pacientes el acto anestésico fue exitoso, llegando el procedimiento quirúrgico a término sin necesidad de recurrir a la anestesia general. Conclusiones En nuestra experiencia, la seguridad, facilidad de ejecución y el efecto anestésico conseguido, nos permitieron utilizarla de forma rutinaria en mamoplastias con indicación de inserción de implantes en plano submuscular.

Soil erosion is one of the main environmental threats to sustainability and crop productivity in the agricultural sector. In agricultural fields, no-till management is considered a key approach for mitigating soil erosion. The measurement of soil erosion is particularly challenging, especially when surficial morphological changes are relatively small. Conventional experiments are commonly time-consuming and labour-intensive in terms of both field surveys and laboratory methods. On the other hand, the structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry technique has enhanced the experimental activities by enabling the temporal evolution of soil erosion to be assessed through detailed micro-topography. This work presents a multitemporal quantification of soil erosion, using SfM through uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) survey for understanding the evolution of no-till (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) in experimental plots. Considering that morphological changes at the plot scale had millimetre orders of magnitude, it was necessary to minimise SfM errors (e.g., co-registration and interpolation) in volumetric estimates to reduce noise as much as possible. Therefore, a methodological workflow was developed to analyse and identify the effectiveness of multi-temporal SfMderived products, e.g., the conventional difference of digital terrain models (DoDs) and the less used differences of meshes (DoMs), for soil volume computations. We validated the erosion volumetric changes calculated from the SfM outputs with the amount of soil directly collected through conventional runoff and sediment measurements in the field. In this way, we recognised the most suitable estimation method. This study presents a novel approach for using DoMs instead of DoDs to describe the microtopography changes and sediment dynamics accurately. Another key and innovative aspect of this work often overlooked in soil erosion studies, was identifying the contributing sediment surface by delineating the channels potentially routing runoff directly to water collectors. The sediment paths and connected areas inside the plots were identified using a multi-temporal analysis of the sediment connectivity index for achieving the volumetric estimates, using DoMs (e.g., 2213 cm3 for no-till management system - NT and 38155 cm3 for conventional tillage regime - CT during September 2018-June 2020) that showed mild overestimation respect to field measurements results (e.g., 2359 cm3 for NT and 4525 cm3 for CT in the same period). This difference was attributable to other factors (e.g., the soil compaction processes) or variables rather than to photogrammetric or geometric ones. The developed workflow enabled low cos quantification of soil erosion dynamics for assessing the mitigation effects of no-till management that can also be extended in the future to different scales, based on SfM and UAV technologies.

Objetivo. Evaluar las condiciones del ambiente oral de distintos sectores de la boca de pacientes previo y durante el tratamiento ortodóntico. Métodos. Estudio prospectivo en 46 pacientes con tratamiento de ortodoncia fija. Los parámetros clínicos, microbiológicos de saliva y placa bacteriana fueron registrados antes del tratamiento (t0) y a los 45 (t1), 90 (t2) y 135 días (t3) del inicio. Resultados. Antes del tratamiento se registraron valores elevados del componente “cariados” del índice CPO-D y niveles regulares del IHOs. El 57% de los pacientes mostró apiñamiento dental inferior. Durante el tratamiento, el índice de placa ortodóntica IPO disminuyó respecto al IHOs a t0, aunque mantuvo valores no deseables para la salud bucal (p=0,001). La capacidad amortiguadora disminuyó en t1 y t2 pero recuperó los valores iniciales en t3 (p=0,001). Se aislaron Streptococcus mutans, Candida albicans y Lactobacillus en todas las muestras de placa bacteriana, con un aumento significativo en el sector posterior (p

Early warning systems for debris flows are low cost measures for mitigating this kind of hazard. The early warning systems provide a timely alert for upcoming events in order to take protective measures, such as closing railways-roads, evacuating people from the threatened areas, and put rescue forces into readiness. These systems usually are sensor-based, and the alert time is the interval between the timing of the first detachment of debris flow by a sensor and its arrival into the threatened area. At the purpose of increasing the alert time, we propose an early warning system based on a model-cascade: nowcasting, hydrological- and triggering models. Nowcasting anticipates rainfall pattern that is transformed into runoff by the hydrological model. The triggering model estimates the volume of sediments that the runoff can entrain, and compares it with a critical threshold. If this is exceeded the alert is launched. The proposed early warning system is tested against the available data of the Rovina di Cancia (Northeast Italy) site.

Terraced landscapes are widely applied in many mountainous regions around the world as a result of the necessity to practice subsistence agriculture. Hence, they can be regarded as one of the most diffused anthropogenic modifications of the Earth’s surface. Different techniques have been used for their implementation leading to the artificial immobilization of debris and soil along the slopes whose surface is interrupted by a sequence of sub-horizontal and sub-vertical areas often using stone walls. In some areas of the world, such interventions are thousands of years old and their resistance to the degradation caused by the morphogenetic system can be attributed to the permeability of the stone walls as well as to their regular maintenance. In some other areas, the lack of maintenance has been the main cause for degradation processes ending with their collapse. The effects of climate change manifested through higher intensities and higher frequencies of rainfall are likely to accelerate the degradation process further by causing terraces to act as a source of debris or hyperconcentrated flow. This will in turn increase the severity of geo-hydrological hazards. The measures concerning reduction of geo-hydrological hazards are sought through identification of abandoned terraces and assessment of the potential for their sudden collapse. The present paper describes a framework for identification of abandoned terraces and estimation of the potential volume of shallow landslides that can be generated. The research conducted aims to advance the existing hazard assessment practices by combining numerical modeling with processing of high-resolution LiDAR data. A new algorithm is developed to support localization of terraces. The catchment scale approach applied to eight smaller catchments enables estimation of the total volume of soil and debris trapped along the slopes. It also generated some important quantitative data which will be used in the future risk assessment work. The work has been carried out within the EU-funded H2020 project RECONECT.