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- Leibovici, Didier G., et al.
(author)
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Associating land cover changes with patterns of incidences of climate-sensitive infections : An example on tick-borne diseases in the nordic area
- 2021
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In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 18:20
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Some of the climate-sensitive infections (CSIs) affecting humans are zoonotic vector-borne diseases, such as Lyme borreliosis (BOR) and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), mostly linked to various species of ticks as vectors. Due to climate change, the geographical distribution of tick species, their hosts, and the prevalence of pathogens are likely to change. A recent increase in human incidences of these CSIs in the Nordic regions might indicate an expansion of the range of ticks and hosts, with vegetation changes acting as potential predictors linked to habitat suitability. In this paper, we study districts in Fennoscandia and Russia where incidences of BOR and TBE have steadily increased over the 1995–2015 period (defined as ’Well Increasing districts’). This selection is taken as a proxy for increasing the prevalence of tick-borne pathogens due to increased habitat suitability for ticks and hosts, thus simplifying the multiple factors that explain incidence variations. This approach allows vegetation types and strengths of correlation specific to the WI districts to be differentiated and compared with associations found over all districts. Land cover types and their changes found to be associated with increasing human disease incidence are described, indicating zones with potential future higher risk of these diseases. Combining vegetation cover and climate variables in regression models shows the interplay of biotic and abiotic factors linked to CSI incidences and identifies some differences between BOR and TBE. Regression model projections up until 2070 under different climate scenarios depict possible CSI progressions within the studied area and are consistent with the observed changes over the past 20 years.
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| 2. |
- Mariotti d'Alessandro, Mauro, et al.
(author)
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Interferometric Ground Cancellation for Above Ground Biomass Estimation
- 2020
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In: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. - 0196-2892 .- 1558-0644. ; 58:9, s. 6410-6419
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A new processing technique, i.e., ground cancellation, which removes the ground signal from a pair of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, is used to emphasize the response from above-ground targets. This technique is of particular interest when studying forest canopies using low-frequency signals able to reach the underlying ground, in which case the portion of the signal coming from the ground interferes with the recovery of information about the vegetation. We demonstrate that the power in ground-canceled P-band HV SAR data gives significantly higher correlations with above-ground biomass (AGB) than the interferometric images considered separately. In addition, a significant increase in the sensitivity of backscatter to AGB is observed. Ground-canceled power may then be modeled or regressed to estimate AGB; these possibilities are not discussed here as they will be the topic of forthcoming publications. The effectiveness of this technique is proven through simulations and analysis of real data gathered on tropical forests. The stability of the technique is analyzed under the digital terrain model and baseline control errors, and compensation strategies for these errors are presented.
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