The current trend towards global urbanization presents new environmental and social challenges. For this reason, it is increasingly important to monitor urban growth, mainly in those regions undergoing the fastest urbanization, such as Southeast Asia. Hanoi (Vietnam) is a rapidly growing medium-sized city: since new economic policies were introduced in 1986, this area has experienced a rapid demographic rise and radical socio-economic transformation. In this study, we aim to map not only the recent urban expansion of Hanoi, but also of its surroundings. For this reason, our study area consists of the districts within a 30km radius of the city center. To analyze the rural–urban dynamics, we identified three hypothetical rings from the center: the core (within a 10 km radius), the first ring (the area between 10 and 20 km) and, finally, the outer zone (over 20 km). To map land use/land cover (LULC) changes, we classified a miniseries of Landsat images, collected approximately every ten years (1989, 2000, 2010 and 2019). To better define the urban dynamics, we then applied the following spatial indexes: the rate of urban expansion, four landscape metrics (the number of patches, the edge length, the mean patch area and the largest patch index) and the landscape expansion index. The results show how much the city’s original shape has changed over the last thirty years: confined for hundreds of years in a limited space on the right bank of the Red River, it is now a fringed city which has developed beyond the river into the surrounding periurban areas. Moreover, the region around Hanoi is no longer solely rural: in just thirty years, urbanization has converted this territory into an industrial and commercial region.

Photovoltaics (PV) is the fastest-growing renewable energy source at the global level and Italy has been one of the pioneers of such growth, now being one of the Countries with the largest installed PV capacity – absolute, per unit area, and per capita. In this paper we investigated the impact of PV on land use in the area with the highest density of PV farms in Italy, i.e. the Province of Lecce (Southeastern Italy): here, such impact is expected to be maximum and has been the subject of public debate. In order to map all PV farms in detail, we used participative cartography, specifically OpenStreetMap (OSM), as data source. This international project collects geographic information (often gathered by people – i.e. the so-called Volunteered Geographic Information, VGI – using widely available technologies, such as smartphone built-in GPS), in order to create freely available global topographic maps. In this paper, we used the OSM platform to create a Geographical Information System (GIS) of PV farms in the Province of Lecce. Using GIS-based techniques, we estimated land use at the municipality level and created a density map of PV farms within the study area. Using the official land cover map Corine Land Cover of 2012, we also evaluated the main changes in land use. The results highlight the correlation between spatial distribution of PV farms and geographic variables (geomorphology, demographics, tourism, etc). We also show that land take by PV farms is quite marginal even in a region such as the Province of Lecce, where the density of PV installed power is among the highest available at the global level

Autistic subjects represent a severe concern to dentistry due to the considerable difficulty in managing their oral health, maintaining routine toothbrushing, and preventing dental and periodontal problems. The social and economic burden of managing dental care in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children is particularly cumbersome for families and public and private health expenditure, especially when children reach the dentist following a late diagnosis with evident oral health problems. An early diagnosis of ASD helps dentists better address these children's oral health. Unfortunately, insufficient attention is paid to the training and education of general pediatricians, dentists, and dental hygienists, allowing them to get to approach the different clinical aspects of ASD. Usually, children diagnosed with ASD are scheduled for dental appointments like their neurotypical peers, whereas their needs are typically complex and personalized. Scant attention is also devoted to these patients by commercial manufacturers of dental products and devices for oral hygiene and prevention of caries and periodontal diseases, leaving parents without the support and often failing when they address the oral health of autistic children. The difficulties of oral care do not derive simply from the behavior of ASD patients, as is commonly assumed, and therefore cannot be overcome solely by the patience and attention of parents and dentists. Genetics, dietary habits, sensory impairments, and cognition disorders are other causes contributing in various degrees to the impact on the mood and psychological reactions of autistic children towards dentists. How can we prevent teeth caries, periodontal disorders, and other oral health impairments by properly managing ASD children? This manuscript gives an up-to-date overview of these problems and helps to provide good remarks.

The original analysis of the figures relating to the Pear Tree project (see Salway 2007) involving detailed breakdowns of the results recorded at universities in Catalonia, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Belgium, have already provided interesting, if rather limited, data relating to how film texts are perceived by subjects coning from different nations/languages/cultures. These figures have now been supplemented by results recorded in Germany, Greece, South Africa, Britain, America, Spain and France. These additions, which have been integrated with the original figures, will give greater scope for meaningful examination using the tools of multivariate statistical analysis. This will consist of discriminating sets of variables and identifying a distribution gradient with the aim of recognising sets or cases with similar characteristics. The codified variables will be collected in a single matrix to establish percentage frequencies. Through clustering and factorial analysis, it is hoped to identify sets of variables that will assist in the process of highlighting and understanding any differences in the various descriptions of the Pear Tree text.\ud Furthermore the figures will be subjected to analysis following the canons of corpus linguistics. The Pear Tree texts form a small corpus in themselves and this will be studied in terms of word frequency, clustering, concordance and colligation. The two types of analysis are in many ways complementary and it is hoped that the results obtained from both will provide assistance in understanding perception variance across cultures, with a view to fulfilling one of the main aims of the project, namely to glean information necessary to create optimum audiodescriptions of audiovisual texts for blind communities everywhere

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