Rethinking the Communication with the Unions Members in the New Context

Additional to the three main trends influencing social dialogue at the organizational level - de-centralization, up-scaling, de-institutionalization and representation – the COVID-19 pandemic rules brought a new influence that impacts the Unions, forcing it to adapt its internal communication. This paper is centred upon the way the Unions members in Romania get access to information in the new labour landscape, characterized by the work from home and physical distancing. The research focuses on a collective case-study of three strong Union Federations that developed internal communication with unions’ members that fits the pandemic context. The research focuses on the internal communication repertoire elements used by the Unions. The research method assesses the qualitative information gathered by interviewing key Unions representatives. The main areas of interest are the key topics addressed in the communication with the members, the tools and media mix used, the frequency of the formal communication with the trade unions members, the accountable and the responsible persons with the internal communication, and the management of the feedback from the members, all in the context of what is different vs. 2019. The conclusions are enriched with some recommendations for future development of communication with union members, supporting the social dialog.

Assessment of Aquatic Reed Stands from Airborne Photogrammetric 3K Data

Aquatic reed beds provide important ecological functions, yet their monitoring by remote sensing methods remains challenging. In this study, we propose an approach of assessing aquatic reed stand status indicators based on data from the airborne photogrammetric 3K-system of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). By a Structure from Motion (SfM) approach, we computed stand surface models of aquatic reeds for each of the 14 areas of interest (AOI) investigated at Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria, Germany. Based on reed heights, we subsequently calculated the reed area, surface structure homogeneity and shape of the frontline. For verification, we compared 3K aquatic reed heights against reed stem metrics obtained from ground-based infield data collected at each AOI. The root mean square error (RMSE) for 1358 reference points from the 3K digital surface model and the field-measured data ranged between 39 cm and 104 cm depending on the AOI. Considering strong object movements due to wind and waves, superimposed by water surface effects such as sun glint altering 3K data, the results of the aquatic reed surface reconstruction were promising. Combining the parameter height, area, density and frontline shape, we finally calculated an indicator for status determination: the aquatic reed status index (aRSI), which is based on metrics, and thus is repeatable and transferable in space and time. The findings of our study illustrate that, even under the adverse conditions given by the environment of the aquatic reed, aerial photogrammetry can deliver appropriate results for deriving objective and reconstructable parameters for aquatic reed status (Phragmites australis) assessment.

Correlation and spectral analysis of microcirculatory changes in symmetric areas of human head in short-term hypoxic exposure

Purpose. To study the effect of short-term hypoxic exposure on correlation between microcirculatory parameters (MCR) of symmetric areas of the human head. Materials and methods. MCR parameters of 10 healthy male volunteer were measured by laser Doppler flowmetry method. Short-term hypoxic exposure was produced according to the hypoxic test method using the ReOxy Cardio unit (S. A. Aimediq). We assessed the perfusion metrics left and right areas of interest, neurogenic, myogenic, respiratory and cardiac contributors to vascular tone and correlations between baseline parameters and after hypoxic exposure. Results. We revealed the specificity of regional circulation system rearranging induced by hypoxic load. The specificity is caused by functional asymmetry of correlations between different vascular tone contributors in symmetrical head areas. Strong correlation declining under the hypoxic loads between baseline perfusion on left/right was found. The perfusion changes of symmetrical temporal areas under the hypoxic loads correlate negatively with the baseline perfusion of both the same and the opposite side. Conclusion. Short-term hypoxic load rearranges the balance of different vascular tone contributors regulatory role in MCR of symmetric head areas to maintain the sustainable activity of the whole MRC.

A Probabilistic Model for the Distribution of GDP per Capita in NUTS 3 Zones of Europe

A macroeconomic indicator of productivity and economic development, used to obtain information on the economic and social conditions of a country, is the GDP per capita, which is also used as an indicator of social welfare. By construction it can be used directly to compare areas of interest. It is an indicator of great variability to which it is difficult to assign a probabilistic model to describe its distribution. In fact, it usually appears as a strongly asymmetric and frequently multimodal variable, which directly indicates a strong non-normality. In this work we propose to deal with the problem of finding a probabilistic model for this variable through the estimation of a model of finite mixtures of normal distributions. As an application example, we present the model obtained through the finite mixture for GDP per capita data from the NUTS 3 zones in the nomenclature of the European Union, EU countries and neighbouring countries. Thus, the model is estimated, its validity is checked and the results obtained are analysed, both for the GDP per capita variable and as a function of the countries to which the studied areas belong.

Recognition of Human Face Regions under Adverse Conditions—Face Masks and Glasses—In Thermographic Sanitary Barriers through Learning Transfer from an Object Detector

The COVID-19 pandemic has detrimentally affected people’s lives and the economies of many countries, causing disruption in the health, education, transport, and other sectors. Several countries have implemented sanitary barriers at airports, bus and train stations, company gates, and other shared spaces to detect patients with viral symptoms in an effort to contain the spread of the disease. As fever is one of the most recurrent disease symptoms, the demand for devices that measure skin (body surface) temperature has increased. The thermal imaging camera, also known as a thermal imager, is one such device used to measure temperature. It employs a technology known as infrared thermography and is a noninvasive, fast, and objective tool. This study employed machine learning transfer using You Only Look Once (YOLO) to detect the hottest temperatures in the regions of interest (ROIs) of the human face in thermographic images, allowing the identification of a febrile state in humans. The algorithms detect areas of interest in the thermographic images, such as the eyes, forehead, and ears, before analyzing the temperatures in these regions. The developed software achieved excellent performance in detecting the established areas of interest, adequately indicating the maximum temperature within each region of interest, and correctly choosing the maximum temperature among them.

Perceptions About Biosimilar Medicines Among Belgian Patients in the Ambulatory Care

Background and objectives: Biosimilar medicines have been on the European market for 15 years. Despite the extensive and positive experience with biosimilars across Europe, their uptake remains limited in Belgium. One of the possible factors limiting uptake in clinical practice is the inadequate understanding and lack of trust in biosimilars among patients. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and perceptions about biosimilar medicines among Belgian patients in the ambulatory care.Methods: This study consisted of online questionnaires among Belgian patients in the ambulatory care (i.e., rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, plaque psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, diabetes mellitus type I and II). The results were collected between December 2020 and February 2021. The data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: In total, 657 patients across all disease areas of interest participated in this study. Only 38% of patients had heard of biosimilars before. Of those patients, most (58%) were aware that biosimilars are as safe and effective as their reference product. The vast majority of respondents (68%) would agree with transitioning to a biosimilar if their physician prescribed it, only 3% would never agree with a transition to a biosimilar. If a physician would propose to change their current originator biological therapy with its biosimilar, nearly all patients (95%) want their physician to explain the decision and inform them. For additional information about biosimilars, Belgian patients prefer brochures or folders (41%), or available resources on the internet (35%). Physicians were indicated as the preferred source of information (95%), followed by pharmacists (51%), academia (39%), and patient associations (35%). Most patients require information regarding the safety and efficacy (78%), price and reimbursement (64%), and the clinical development process (56%) of the biosimilar.Conclusion: Belgian patients require information about biosimilar medicines. However, most patients are open and positive towards transitioning their current biological therapy with its biosimilar if sufficiently supported by their healthcare providers.

The Role of Lung Ultrasound in Diagnosing COVID-19-Related Multisystemic Inflammatory Disease: A Preliminary Experience

Background: To date, there are no data regarding the systematic application of Point-of-Care Lung Ultrasound (PoC-LUS) in children with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). The main aim of this study is to show the role of Point-of-Care Lung Ultrasound as an additional aid in the diagnosis of COVID-19-related Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). Methods: Between April 2020 and April 2021, patients aged 0–18 years referred to our emergency department for fever, and later hospitalized without a specific diagnosis, underwent PoC-LUS. Ultrasound images of patients with a final diagnosis of MIS-C were retrospectively evaluated. Results: Ten patients were enrolled. All were described to have pleural irregularities and B-lines. In particular: 8/10 children presented with isolated B-lines in at least half of the lung areas of interest; 8/10 presented with multiple B-lines and 3/8 had them in at least 50% of lung areas; 5/10 had a white lung appearance in at least one lung area and 1/5 had them in half of the areas of interest. Pleural effusion was described in 9/10. Conclusions: During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we suggest performing PoC-LUS in febrile patients with high levels of inflammatory indices and clinical suspicion of MIS-C, or without a certain diagnosis; the finding of many B-lines and pleural effusion would support the diagnosis of a systemic inflammatory disease.

AVAILABILITY AND COMPARISON OF DATA FROM SENTINEL-1 SATELLITES IN AREAS OF INTEREST IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SUDAN

The article is focused on the methodology of processing interferometric images and associated challenges with the processing. The article also contains useful links with explanations that can be used for processing data from the Sentinel-1 satellite. To emphasize the data limits of Sentinel-1, several areas of interest were chosen for comparison – in the home environment of the Czech Republic, the Bílina quarry area, and the Žatec area were selected. For subsequent comparison, arid areas with a rich history located in Sudan were selected. The colleagues of the author from the Faculty of The Environment of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University participate in expeditions there. Each of these locations is limited by different parameters – the areas in the Czech Republic are mainly limited by location because of occurring vegetation. Sudan's regions, on the other hand, are arid but are limited by insufficient coverage by capturing the Sentinel-1 satellite. To create digital height models from Sentinel-1 satellite data, it is necessary to search for data with sufficient coherence of images, and parameters of the amount of vegetation with a period between individual images play an important role. The areas were compared with each other and with the commonly available SRTM elevation model, both from a visual point of view – where digital height models and shaded surface models were created, as well as statistically using RMSE.

AOI-shapes: An Efficient Footprint Algorithm to Support Visualization of User-defined Urban Areas of Interest

Understanding urban areas of interest (AOIs) is essential in many real-life scenarios, and such AOIs can be computed based on the geographic points that satisfy user queries. In this article, we study the problem of efficient and effective visualization of user-defined urban AOIs in an interactive manner. In particular, we first define the problem of user-defined AOI visualization based on a real estate data visualization scenario, and we illustrate why a novel footprint method is needed to support the visualization. After extensively reviewing existing “footprint” methods, we propose a parameter-free footprint method, named AOI-shapes, to capture the boundary information of a user-defined urban AOI. Next, to allow interactive query refinements by the user, we propose two efficient and scalable algorithms to incrementally generate urban AOIs by reusing existing visualization results. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments with both synthetic and real-world datasets to demonstrate the quality and efficiency of the proposed methods.

Ground Validation Experiment and Spectral Detection Capability Evaluation of Mars Mineralogical Spectrometer (MMS) Aboard HX-1 Orbiter

As a hyperspectral imager aboard the orbiter “HX-1” of China’s first Mars mission, the Mars Mineralogical Spectrometer (MMS) is designed with hyperspectral and multispectral operation modes to survey the mineral types and their distribution on the surface of Mars, and to study the overall chemical composition and evolution history of Mars. The multispectral modes of MMS are different from hyperspectral modes on the bands selection, spatial and spectral resolution, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) etc. So the spectral detection capability of each mode of MMS is also different. The ground validation experiment of MMS is conducted to evaluate the hyperspectral and multispectral data quality and detection capabilities. The main conclusions include: (1) The measured hyperspectra of typical mineral samples obtained by MMS agree well with the data acquired by the Standard Comparison Spectrometers (SCS) under the same measurement conditions, and the spectral uncertainty between MMS and SCS is less than 7% in the key spectral ranges ($0.7\sim2.2~\upmu \text{m}$ 0.7 ∼ 2.2 μm ). For some typical minerals, the absorption band positions deviation between MMS and SCS are within $0.69\sim14.86~\text{nm}$ 0.69 ∼ 14.86 nm , which are within the spectral resolution limits of MMS. (2) The six sets of band combinations designed for MMS multispectral modes are slightly superior to CRISM’s multispectral mode in terms of spectral resolutions and bands selection, the water-containing minerals will be more accurately distinguished and identified, such as montmorillonite and kaolinite. Besides, the SNR of each multispectral mode is greater than 400 in the 500–2600 nm spectral range, which meets the requirements for the subtle spectral characteristics of water-containing minerals. (3) Benefiting from the MMS ground validation experiment and the experience of the OMEGA and CRISM, it is recommended that MMS first adopt the spatial continuous 52-sample or 104-sample (spatial resolution is about $0.53\sim1.06~\text{km}$ 0.53 ∼ 1.06 km ) multispectral operation mode for typical minerals global mapping and finding target areas of interest. Then the 208-sample multispectral mode (spatial resolution is about $\sim265~\text{m}$ ∼ 265 m ) or 26-sample hyperspectral mode can be used to survey target areas of interest for the subtle mineral types characteristics and distribution. At last, 26-sample hyperspectral mode could be used to monitor the atmospheric composition of Mars by limb observations.