"We in government have the duty to look at what we want our country to become in the next 50 years" Talking about nuclear "is not an ideological choice We who are in government have the duty to look at what we want our country to become in the next 50 years" Deputy Minister of the Environment and Energy Security spoke at the Lega Nord event “Sustainable Nuclear: Italy Restarts” “We have a manufacturing industry that is the second in Europe,” Gava explained “We saw two years ago how vulnerable we are also as a European Union the manufacturing sector has not stopped and has invested abroad also in the form of skills.” Read also other news on Nova News Click here and receive updates on WhatsApp Follow us on the social channels of Nova News on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Telegram A growing consensus… in Italy now underscores that national security is inextricably linked to protecting critical infrastructure Italy recognises the necessity of bolstering infrastructure security Deputy Minister Gava has emphasised the strategic synergy between defence and infrastructure protection Intelligence focus. The annual 2024 intelligence report reveals escalating risks tied to cyber espionage and foreign influence operations targeting essential infrastructure the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) hosted a high-level event in Warsaw that brought together policymakers and experts to discuss European infrastructure security Today’s European Council meeting is set to address the EU’s common defence and strategic autonomy with the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine as a backdrop Francesco Corvaro spent last week in Washington engaging US Department of Energy officials on nuclear fission and fusion Rome has sent two Canadair water‑bombers to assist Israel in battling forest fires acting swiftly under the EU’s rescEU mechanism Decode39 is a spin-off project stemming from Formiche a leading geopolitical and analytical news outlet that has been informing Italian decision-makers since 2004 We provide authoritative content and geopolitical insights taking advantage of Italy’s unique perspective as a global crossroads to reach English and Arab-speaking readers around the world authoritative content and geopolitical insights from Italy to Arabic readers around the world DECODE39 IN ARABIC> Galpão Gaucho opened last month in a standalone Irvine restaurant cultivated inside barnyards and corrugated metal buildings where the galpão (shed) served as a gathering place for music Gava’s passion for this southern Brazilian history and tradition was nurtured in the birthplace of the exalted rodizio, or rotating grill, the Brazilian steakhouse popular around the world for its parade of roasted meat skewers fitted with prime cuts. Armed with a love of the churrascaria, Gava began his professional career at São Paulo’s Jardineira Grill at the age of 17 where he learned hospitality in the Brazilian metropolis’s highly competitive churrascaria field Marrying the rustic charm of the south with big-city sophistication has guided the fast-growing franchise since its opening eight years ago Galpão Gaucho’s dimly-lit elegance combines round stone walls with wood beams above white tablecloths where diners can take the restaurant’s 18 select cuts — including the flashy 24-karat golden steak — all carved with a facón (gaucho knife) by uniformed servers Churrascaria aficionados can put in a special request for grilled chicken hearts one of the trademark specialties that the best Brazilian barbecues serve and sides) costs $75 a person for dinner and on weekends Weekday lunch is available for $55 a person Those who want to eat lighter can do the salad bar and hot items like feijoada for only $36 fluffy pão de queijo (cheese bread) arrive at the table Must-order salad bar items include vinagrete (tomato salad) Those who want a kick can ask for molho de pimenta malagueta (hot sauce) don’t skip the garlic bread or the queijo assado (grilled cheese with honey) In addition to Brazilian cocktails and a tequila cart roving around the restaurant floor there’s a wine list that favors Napa Valley reds and Argentine malbecs all of which to pair with Galpão Gaúcho’s three particular preparations of picanha (top sirloin cap) just turn over the churrascaria cards to green to get the action started Galpao Gaucho is located at 1830 Main Street Lunch is served Monday to Friday from 11:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m.; Dinner is served Monday to Thursday Friday until 10:00 p.m.; Open Saturday 12:00 p.m Seyi John Salau $(document).ready(function(){(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({})}); will again be one of the great attractions of this Christmas from November 29 to January 4 but there are places that take the charm to another level This year the forest is back with news. Under the slogan “We light up Christmas” the neighboring city of Barcelona will host a show of lights and sounds in the Parc de la Torre Lluc that will seek to be as viral and successful as last year. The party will be inaugurated next Friday, November 29 at 6:00 pm in Parc de la Torre Lluc, and will be a free access event that will include the lighting of the tree and the opening of the Bosc Encantat (Enchanted Forest). Last year the place was very recognizable: as soon as we arrived a 20 meters high luminous Christmas tree welcomed us to a magical walk. From here, a whole route with scenes and objects of LED lights, with illuminated trees, manger scenes and giant Christmas objects that turn the place into a luminous fantasy and one of the main Christmas attractions in Barcelona. This year, in addition, the Bosc Encantat improves its offer by increasing the lights to 80,000 LED points and about fifty 3D and 2D elements. The hours of the forest will be from 17:30h. to 22:30h. every day until January 7, and access is free. https://www.tiktok.com/@gebadia/video/7172996381571894534?_r=1&amp;_t=8XvLvNvKNmw&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;item_id=7172996381571894534 Although Gavà is not Barcelona, the Enchanted Forest can be reached with a train ride of just 20 minutes from the city center. The R2 of Rodalies leaves every few minutes from Sants constantly connecting the two municipalities, and bringing to the people of Barcelona one of the most magical places of this holiday season. From the City Council recommend approaching by public transport, but for those who want to go by car, the trip takes just 15 minutes from the city center, and have enabled two large free parking and facilitate access to the area in the cale Girona and Joan Carles I Avenue. Those who come to Gavà will also be able to enjoy the Christmas illumination of the entire municipality, whose center, like so many other cities, is filled with lights to decorate the most festive days of the year. Ellie Gava has been a teacher, a tuckshop parent, a seamstress, a judge of sewing and handicrafts at local agricultural shows – and much more. Elide Gava, known as Ellie is 90, and she has been named the Lismore Electorate Woman of the Year for her community leadership and volunteering over the years. State MP Janelle Saffin said when she looked at the list of achievements by Ellie, it should have been called a lifetime achievement award. “Ellie is known for her years of work supporting the local Italian community, particularly older Italians – and her efforts have enriched the wider community,” Ms Saffin said. “She is someone who would see a community need, think of a solution and work to make it happen. “Back in 1984 Ellie had the idea for a support group for older Italians – somewhere they could speak Italian, play cards, eat an Italian lunch. When she organised  the first meeting thinking a handful of people might turn up, it turned out to be closer to 100 people. “Talk to anyone in the Italian community and they will have a story of what Ellie has done.” Ellie has been involved with the New Italy Museum, New Italy. “As a child of Italian parents Ellie understands the contribution made by Italian migrants to the social, commercial and agricultural heritage of this area, and she has helped document this history,” Ms Saffin said.  Ellie has also supported the Continental Music and Sports Club, the Lismore Friendship Festival (now called LisAmore!) Casa Serena accommodation for older Italians, the Italo Club (now the Marconi Club), getting the mosaic in Spinks Park to commemorate the early Italian settlers and more.  The information in this story was provided by the office of Janelle Saffin MP. Richmond Valley and Kyogle newsEmail: indynr.com@gmail.com Elide Gava may not be a household name in the Lismore LGA but she has been a household name in the Italian community for the last forty plus years Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin named Elide at a private function at St Carthage's Community Care in Goonellabah (Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin talking about Ellie Gava's achievements yesterday.) Ms Saffin praised her community leadership and volunteering over many years Ellie was to have travelled to Sydney to accept the award from Premier Chris Minns but she took ill and couldn't make the trip because now she could share the award with her lifelong friends "I feel humble," Ellie told the Lismore App "I don't think I've done anything spectacular I did what I wanted to do and followed my dreams mostly and I think I've achieved most of them "I suppose I do get a bit of acclaim for having done this I've got to say that the volunteers were a big help "I couldn't do it without them because the first day we started That's a lot of work for the volunteers "They even had to buy the food in those days and prepare the morning tea and lunches but it's the volunteers that need all the accolades." the year she had the idea to organise a support group for older Italians She saw a need for local Italians to be able to meet up weekly The Seniors Day Club is Ellie's legacy; it continues today and is expanding to Casino The only difference today is that Ellie enjoys the day as a participant rather than a volunteer It is now run by the staff at St Carthage's Community Care “When I look at the list of achievements and the many projects and community programs Ellie has initiated and been involved in I realise this could also be called a lifetime achievement award.”  “Ellie is known for her years of work supporting the local Italian community particularly older Italians – and her efforts have enriched the wider community “She is someone who would see a community need think of a solution and work to make it happen “Talk to anyone in the Italian community and they will have a story of what Ellie has done That story involves a long list of achievements the Continental Music and Sports Club and Bocce courts that were on Uralba Street The Lismore Friendship Festival (now called LisAmore!) Casa Serena accommodation for older Italians getting the mosaic in Spinks Park to commemorate the early Italian settlers and more (Ellie Gava and Janelle Saffin share a joke) Ellie understands the contribution made by Italian migrants to the social commercial and agricultural heritage of this area and she has helped document this history," Ms Saffin explained a judge of sewing and handicrafts at local agricultural shows and praised Chris Pauling (now one of Ms Saffin's Lismore backroom staff) for getting her the funding "And I think I have to tell you who my hero is because she is sitting over there today who got us our first funding to start the daycare going This isn't the first time that Ellie has received a prominent award There have been three Premiers Awards since 2003 all for her volunteer work and the contributions she has made to not only the Italian community but It is hard to deny Ellie another award for her selfless achievements throughout her life In a breathtaking wedding at Chrisopigi Monastery a journalist for the The Guardian Australia tied the knot on September 5 on the idyllic Cycladic island of Sifnos—often referred to as the island of Apollon The wedding took place at the Chrisopigi Monastery followed by a reception at Lazarou Beach Club in Platis Gialos “We chose Sifnos for our wedding after travelling there previously and whitewashed hilltop villages,” Kolovos told Neos Kosmos Kolovos also noted that Sifnos is “far less touristy than other nearby Cycladic islands.” The intimate wedding was attended by close friends and family Kolovos personified Hellenic beauty in an elegant Alex Perry design from Bluebell Bridal perfectly complemented by graceful Valentino shoes opted for a sophisticated white Oscar Hunt tuxedo jacket paired with Hugo Boss Oxfords “We had around 100 guests,” Kolovos said It was a traditional Greek Orthodox ceremony “The symbolic aspects of the ceremony were very unique and meaningful taking our first steps as a married couple with our koumbara walking behind us and the priest guiding us,” Kolovos said with Italian heritage on his father’s side and Scottish on his mother’s “He’s practically become Greek now,” Kolovos joked “We laugh that the longer we’ve been together “He’s been taking Greek lessons online for about a year Gava also followed the tradition of meeting his bride at the front steps of the church with a bouquet of peonies Sifnos’ significance grew during the Iconoclastic Controversy when free-thinking intellectuals sought refuge there contributing to the island’s spiritual revival the celebration continued into the early hours of the next morning “There were so many memorable moments at our reception—emotional speeches Orea Nifi with our bridal party (we gave them lessons leading up to the day) and plenty of zeibekiko,” Kolovos said “We partied with our guests until 4 a.m. then walked back to our villa along the beach this couple’s love found a perfect home in Sifnos This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page About 174 children from Gava village in the Mpungu constituency in the Kavango West region are being provided with meals three times a week at the Gava drought response soup kitchen centre The regional coordinator for Catholic AIDS Action says the soup kitchen programme was started in March by Catholic AIDS Action in collaboration with the UN World Food Programme “Imagine if the child comes from school at 13h00 or later But passing by the soup kitchen at least they get something to eat even though sometimes it’s not enough,” Servantius says Servantius adds that there are some children who are not registered but they are part of the community and also vulnerable He says the demand is high to do more for the children “We also encounter challenges of children who sometimes do not turn up for two to three days so we find it difficult to track them to see why they did not show up because the parents don’t bother to come and report why the child did not come to eat,” he notes Servantius appeals to the government to support such programmes so that the children continue or start eating five days a week Fatima Mununga (29) a community member of Gava whose two children benefit from the project told her story “I have four children and two are registered with the soup kitchen,” she says Mununga says she survives by working on people’s fields in exchange for food “The soup kitchen has taken a huge responsibility off me with my two small children My baby of 18 months was diagnosed as malnourished in 2024 and the other one is in Grade 2,” she says “After school my child goes straight for a meal at the centre before going home at least she will have a meal within the course of the day and I don’t have to worry much,” she notes Mununga says her daily struggle is to find a job for a steady income to put food on the table for her family this is too little for the family of nine in the house especially from the kitchen that feeds our children healthy foods that help them overcomemalnutrition,” says the mother copyright in the content of this website vest in The Free Press of Namibia (Proprietary) Limited (Registration No 85/058) The unauthorized making of copies or use of this material constitutes a copyright infringment under the Namibian Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Protection Act Powered by PageSuite © 2025 The Namibian This site asks for consent to use your data We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze how you use this website and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent You can choose to enable or disable some or all of these cookies but disabling some of them may affect your browsing experience Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns Welcome to our ‘Day in the Life’ blog series where we interview a colleague from the product and engineering department to reflect on their career and experiences at the Guardian Gustavo Gava’s mother was an interior and shop window designer and he fondly recalls how fascinated he used to be by all the shapes and colours in her work Many moons later it was the time to decide between studying advertising architecture or design and Gus decided to pursue a Product Design degree at the UFPR (Universidade Federal do Paraná) After some years working in local design studios he came to London where he started his first job in the digital space When I was at school I was fascinated by the UK It was the time of ‘Cool Britannia’ and I was obsessed with the plethora of culture the ties got stronger when I realised how significant British product and graphic design influences were in the world had also done her masters in the UK and established herself as one of the most influential designers of her generation with award winning works including the Tate visual identity I was really sold on this dream of London as the place to be cultural power house and I wanted to be part of it It was the place where you got to set the design trends of the world instead of just following them It was a shock when I first arrived as I couldn’t barely understand the many accents I could hear But it was also the most fun I’ve ever had in my life I started by working in a bar in Shoreditch where I met people from different parts of the UK which actually really helped me get to grips with the language I was confident enough to start looking for a job in my field and years later I too completed my MSC in Interactive Design and Games Technologies I kicked things off working for a small studio as a digital designer and doing all sorts of websites and even working on social media 1.0 projects (remember Flash and Myspace?) before moving on to Sky where I worked for seven years as a UI Designer After a while I started to feel somewhat detached from the decision making process I felt like I was designing blindly for other people and only seeing the product pop up months later I got back to falling in love with creative ways to solve a challenge which brought me back to my product design roots Being a UXer allowed me to think more critically about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ As in the customer’s expectations and needs from a product or experience wholesome and fulfilling experience that is aligned with our business goals that meant thinking and researching a lot harder about the design instead of just considering client satisfaction and what would look good on a page I thought that a move back to a smaller organisation might be just the thing so I ended up at Hive Learning where I worked on designing a learning and collaboration app for teams I also made the shift from UI to a more all rounded product role Apply for one of our open positions here What can I expect from the interview process We aim to be as fair and transparent as possible in our hiring process. Similar to other organisations, there is a CV screening, coding exercise and a face to face interview. Read more about what to expect and apply now here, and read more about our department here Thank you for your feedback.What made you decide to finally join the Guardian I’d been at Hive Learning for over two years when I had another soul-searching moment after successfully launching the app I looked back at my career and saw that I was happiest when working closer to editorial teams Designing an app was a rewarding experience but I thought it was the right time to look for a job that combined my skill set editorial design with an organisation doing something positive in the world The Guardian was the natural choice as it was the newspaper close to my heart and aligned with my values after a few exhausting hours of application submissions and a glass of wine I noticed an advert in one of the LinkedIn newsletters then a phone call and finally an interview Suddenly I found myself starting my journey at the Guardian as a senior UX designer and one of the first things I like to do is check our chat channels to see if I missed anything from the day before or overnight Then I have a look at my calendar to double-check if there is any change in my schedule for the day we have a design heartbeat meeting where we update each other on where we are in design work across teams and talk about case studies and new ideas Throughout my time at the Product and Engineering team I stayed over three years in the Supporter Revenue team to create the best experience for our readers and encourage them to become supporters the rest of my day is either individual work or many one-to-one and cross-functional meetings They’re one of my favourite types of discussions because it involves team members from different areas of the department like product and engineering and members from outside the department like marketing All of us are on board the same product discovery journey What do you enjoy the most about working here The Guardian is the first workplace where I feel totally myself especially as a professional who is part of the LGBTQI community and I feel at home as my colleagues are progressive like-minded individuals I really love the morning conference which is our daily news meeting led by our editor-in-chief It’s open to anyone in the organisation and it is an opportunity to hear what our editorial teams are planning to publish that day I think it’s one of the best perks of working here because you feel like you’re at the very beating heart of the news Knowing that part of my work involves making sure all our wonderful journalists are able to do their jobs is very rewarding for me; holistically as well as practically for I was previously on the team working on editorial tools The UX experience for me isn’t just about the external reader but also about the internal user and those people are some of the more amazing principled and hardworking individuals I have had the pleasure of working with Development of digital products is central to the Guardian You could be building the products that showcase our progressive and independent journalism crafting the tools that journalists use to write their stories developing the services that allow those stories to be distributed across the globe If you’re interested in joining our product and engineering team, please visit the Guardian News & Media careers page The following are excerpts from our original Italian-language interview with Italy’s Deputy Minister for the Environment and Energy Security Please find the full translated text below On nuclear within the European Commission’s Net Zero Industry Act Fourth-generation nuclear “does appear among the technologies that we will have to produce within EU borders to combine decarbonisation and strategic independence Common sense won over ideological environmentalism.” “[This] Italian government has always espoused a principle of technological neutrality: if you really believe in the energy transition no source of energy should be demonised or exalted a priori “The update of Italy’s National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) can be an opportunity to promote a comprehensive review of energy and climate policies to foster growth and ensure security in the transition choosing today the most promising avenues for the future.” On the state of the Italian industry “Through the National Agency for New Technologies Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) the National Research Centre (CNR) and many universities and private companies Italy is conducting advanced research with high potential.” you feared the EU would eliminate nuclear power from the draft of the Net Zero Industry Act which still has to go through Parliament and the EU Council Nuclear power is in the final version of the Net Zero Industry Act presented by the European Commission on Thursday “advanced technologies to produce energy from nuclear processes with minimal waste from the fuel cycle small modular reactors and related best-in-class fuels” appear among the technologies we will have to produce within EU borders to combine decarbonisation and strategic independence Common sense won over ideological environmentalism the measure may be less incisive than expected reading the draft let us remember that the NZIA is an initiative to systemise a more streamlined legislative framework capable of simplifying authorisation procedures for investments useful for decarbonisation: a winning mechanism to respond to the USA’s Inflation Reduction Act and Japan’s plan for energy transition demobilising private and public resources in the Old Continent It should be emphasised that the inclusion of nuclear power in the NZIA in this formulation is at least consistent with the content of the delegated act to the RED II Directive presented a few weeks ago by the European Commission according to which hydrogen produced through nuclear energy is defined as “green” The role of nuclear energy is twofold: essential to assist renewables in the continuous production of emission-free electricity and essential to power highly energy-intensive processes Countries like France want to keep nuclear power among the strategic technologies for the European greentech industry; others are working in the opposite direction What is the position of the Italian government What kind of repercussions does it foresee The Italian government has always espoused a principle of technological neutrality: if you really believe in the energy transition no energy source should be demonised or exalted a priori but studied and evaluated since there are not yet adequate accumulation and storage systems for large quantities of energy and programmed supply – which in technical language is called baseload – through other secure and always-available sources accounting for 43% and 8% of Italy’s energy mix the energy mix cannot do without a supplementary share of continuous sources such as hydropower The update of Italy’s National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) can be an opportunity to promote a comprehensive review of energy and climate policies to foster growth and ensure security in the transition choosing today the most promising avenues for the future The first step is undoubtedly to incentivise research start drawing up an updated legal framework and reopen the way to nuclear power after the two referendums of 1987 and 2011 A few days ago, the secretary of the Environment Committee in the Chamber of Deputies, Gianpiero Zinzi, presented a resolution to support the creation of new-generation nuclear power plants Do you think it has the majority’s support It is about having a bold vision and planning long-term strategies knowing that we must meet decarbonisation commitments without shutting down the country’s industry This is an important challenge for the government and the institutions a dutiful responsibility for those called upon to lead a country amid an economic we are talking about technologies that are widespread and used all over the world Through the National Agency for New Technologies Italy is conducting advanced research with high potential If we were to meet the necessary conditions what role do you imagine for nuclear power in the Italian energy scene The role of nuclear power can only be central to the decarbonisation of the energy system Unlike thermoelectric power from gas and coal nuclear energy can be considered carbon-free and boasts a very low environmental impact: in both fission and fusion nuclear energy is continuous and can complement energy production from renewable sources ready to intervene when there is no sun or wind to meet demand and ensure the electricity grid’s stability the ease of finding nuclear fuel and the higher energy density can ensure autonomy and independence in terms of supply We estimate that replacing the 38 billion cubic metres of gas that we import today to produce electricity will require fifteen 1600-megawatt reactors what are the strategic assets on which Italy and the EU must urgently focus in the industrial plan Can they serve as a starting point for imagining an Italian nuclear renaissance In order to engage in decarbonisation and the challenge of climate neutrality, we find ourselves, unfortunately, having to chase China in the supply of critical raw materials: rare earth minerals for electrification and the ecological transition but also materials to implement circular economy processes by replacing fossil fuels such as ferrous scrap for the conversion of steel mill blast furnaces into electric furnaces The NZIA will have to be effective in these areas to convince our companies to build large plants to produce microchips which are often the result of industrial reconversions and constitute an environmental and social opportunity before being industrial Italy is the second-largest manufacturing country in Europe and we have realised in recent months how energy-intensive our industry is makes it possible to produce energy at fixed and competitive production costs in the long term and is the solution to decarbonise and make the most energy-intensive sectors A new policy paper by Med-Or Italian Foundation explores the geopolitical implications of climate change with a strategic focus on the Mediterranean CEO Cattaneo unveiled a forward-looking strategic plan for 2025-2027 In 2022, Austin experienced record-breaking heat during both May and June — a fact that may not have surprised our newest Net-Zero Hero: Frances Acuña. In her role as Climate Resilience Lead Organizer with Go! Austin/Vamos! Austin (GAVA) Frances mobilizes community members to combat climate stressors like flooding and extreme heat Frances's interest in this work runs deep — she’s a longtime Dove Springs resident who served as a first responder during the October 2013 and 2015 floods We met with Frances at her home and traveled to the Williamson Creek Greenbelt to talk about heat Our communities have been through so many inequities that there comes a time when you say I started taking action when my neighbors got displaced by the 2013 and 2015 floods I felt the need to get involved knowing that heat as well as displacement and gentrification are impacting our communities more and more as time passes center) with a group of GAVA community volunteers I feel inspired to take action when listening to residents’ stories on how climate shocks and stressors affect them I know that heat temperatures are affecting residents’ health drastically.  I am energized when residents are being listened to and when they are wondering how they can do a better job of being responsive in a constructive way I love seeing the smile on peoples’ faces when their work pays off I really enjoy seeing how proud they get about their accomplishments in their neighborhood I did it by believing in myself and using the anger I get when I see inequities and unfairness happening to my neighbors I have worked to gain the advocacy skills needed to help build community power and speak up for basic needs.  Since 2017, I’ve worked with GAVA and partnered with the City of Austin’s Office of Sustainability, UT Health, and TreeFolks we have worked on heat mapping in some of the Eastern Crescent communities which provided us data on the hottest areas of the city. I’ve interviewed residents on how heat impacts their home life and health in order to build strategies for heat mitigation projects that are led by the communities most impacted by climate shocks and stressors Left: Frances points out spaces in the Williamson Creek Greenbelt where homes once stood that were purchased as part of the City of Austin’s Williamson Creek Flood Risk Reduction Project Right: Frances stands in front of a children’s playscape in the Williamson Creek Greenbelt I listen to the struggles and stories about heat and how it affects their daily lives such as taking their children to school or going to a doctor’s appointment That right there is a motivator to take action I try to turn all barriers and challenges into opportunities to make change The most rewarding thing is seeing residents gain the confidence to speak up or advocate for themselves It’s fulfilling when they get small wins around their needs such as a tree-planting event or a park they advocated so hard for to take their children for safe physical activity Left: Frances stands in her front garden Right: A butterfly visits one of Frances’s flowers.  I think the greatest reward of all is the facial expression of satisfaction — knowing that I have gained their trust and seeing that they have a little hope of getting some relief in their lives from the extremely hot summertime days The toughest part about my work is when residents are expecting a positive action they have been working so hard for that doesn’t happen It’s the worst feeling for me to see residents take part of their day to advocate for a cause that gets voted against Frances helps deliver bottled water in her neighborhood I want to make sure that when I advocate or involve residents that I don’t cause any negative impacts and that residents are not taken advantage of because of my advocacy we all need to know about ways to help ourselves and others in our community: Frances holding the "Dove Springs Neighborhood Preparedness Guide" created for GAVA Technology and climate change are taking control and we are staying behind and winter are becoming more intense with time and you never know when you might need to evacuate or take shelter from the impact of extreme weather events Frances checks on peppers growing in her garden My advice is to learn about heat and options we all have to mitigate climate shocks and stressors We all need to take care of our world.  Make an emergency kit with things you might need for you and your family in case of a disaster.    Meet your neighbors and make a list of seniors in your area that might need to be checked on Go! Austin/Vamos! Austin works to mobilize community members to support a more equitable and resilient Austin. There are many ways to get involved.  To learn more about Austin's net-zero goal and explore actions you can take to support a greener community, view the Austin Climate Equity Plan. Find out how to prepare for the effects of climate change Share your Net-Zero contributions with us on Twitter or Facebook and use #NetZeroHero. If you know a Net-Zero Hero (or heroes!) who should be recognized for their efforts, send your nomination to sustainability@austintexas.gov and inspiration from the Office of Climate Action and Resilience to help advance a bright You are using an outdated browser. Upgrade your browser today or install Google Chrome Frame to better experience this site Our mission is to serve each family to the absolute best of our ability along with their friends and to give to the good of our community in which we live and serve.  Email Us GAVA – Nearly 500 votes were almost lost at Gava village of the Mpungu constituency in Kavango West when residents decided to boycott voting yesterday The villagers sat at shebeens just across the mobile polling station which had come to the Gava Primary School This comes after 14 community members were arrested and detained at the Nkurenkuru police station earlier this month for allegedly putting down a fence in the village the locals made a sharp U-turn after a heated meeting with Kavango East governor Sirrka Ausiku who was the chief mediator in the situation and gave Ausiku until Friday to heed their demands She promised to consult the traditional authority and those accused of illegally fencing off communal land to resolve the impasse “We don’t have power over land; I could have instructed the chairperson to resolve it already and I will come back with the right people including the traditional authority and the person who fenced off the land reiterating that everything was beyond reproach as he went through the right procedures to get the land “The traditional authority rules are in line with government Acts and policies agreed to put the fencing work on hold until Friday the Electoral Commission of Namibia’s presiding officer at the station said no voter had turned up to cast their ballot the whole morning village headman Eino Hamunime said the fence was supposed to have been removed on Monday This was after a meeting with Ausiku and officials from the regional council last Friday “We will do whatever it takes to make sure they vote should the fence be removed,” Hamunime said Paulina Ndalikokule is an information officer at MICT Kavango Iuze Mukube The Supreme Court has determined that the extension of the 2024 November elections was lawful and in the.. Lahja Nashuuta The Supreme Court will deliver the long-awaited ruling on the validity of Namibia’s 2024 Presidential election today.  The.. Iuze Mukube The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) has become a co-applicant with the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) in their.. About Us Vacancies Procurement Gallery Contact Us The expected tariff cost is significantly lower than the $4 billion to $5 billion crosstown rival General Motors estimates which Ford attributes to its higher mix of U.S.-built vehicles Go Fund MeWeb: http://gofundme.com Share on FacebookShare on X (formerly Twitter)Share on PinterestShare on LinkedInBy: WALB News TeamMarch 12 Lowndes County Sheriff’s deputies assigned to the I.C.E unit conducted a traffic stop on a Cadillac on I-75 for impeding the flow of traffic The vehicle was going slow in the middle lane making all other traffic pass on both sides Deputies stopped the vehicle and contacted the driver They could smell the odor of marijuana coming from within the vehicle and had reason to think that the men were involved in other illegal activity A search of the vehicle found approximately 26 debit credit and gift cards hidden in the vehicle which were found to have the encoded information of identity theft victims Deputies also located a little over $12,000 Tutu and Gava were both taken to the Lowndes County Jail and booked on warrants for forgery of a financial transaction card possession of fraud devices and tampering with evidence a longtime community organizer and the executive director of the nonprofit GAVA (Go Austin/Vamos Austin) Llanes Pulido, a 39-year-old native Austinite, has worked at GAVA in different capacities for about 10 years She has served as the non-profit's executive director since 2017 she said she worked at the nonprofit Marathon Kids She has also served on several city commissions including the independent citizens redistricting commission the Latino quality of life commission and the city's planning commission "I am running for mayor because I feel like we are at an incredibly important crossroads in Austin's history," Llanes Pulido told the American-Statesman income inequality and a housing crisis that is stuck in the middle of that as well as much growth and a need to equitably invest in our critical infrastructure." who has previously run for mayor and the District 10 seat when asked about a potential run for either seat in December 2023 said she is deciding and making an announcement later in 2024 "I believe HOME should have been fashioned extremely differently," Llanes Pulido said "Had I been in the mayor's seat at this time I would have brought people together to say what is the problem we're actually trying to solve for and let's bring the champions of creating affordability and stabilizing prices and developing more housing options to the table." Llanes Pulido said she thinks a lot of investors were at the table but not community developers Llanes Pulido said she feels changes to the land development code can potentially help with affordability Llanes Pulido said she had serious concerns about the money being spent to address the issue "That's not to dismiss some of the great work that has been done especially by community partners who are working on the homelessness issue the inability for people to get the support that they need before they're on the streets," Llanes Pulido said "I think we could be doing a lot at the point of prevention and be looking at other cities that are addressing some of the more root causes." Llanes Pulido said she was very concerned about the contract the Austin City Council recently approved with the international consulting firm McKinsey & Company saying it looks "like an extremely expensive contract agreement to once again assess the problem and not solve it." On Project Connect Llanes Pulido said she initially had high hopes for the planned light rail but continued to see rail plans that did not reflect what was first proposed "My concern with Project Connect is that it overcharges and under delivers particularly creating a disproportionate tax burden to transit dependent areas that are not receiving the services and will not receive them for 10 or 20 years," Llanes Pulido said Llanes Pulido filed a campaign treasurer appointment on Tuesday The first day to file in person for a place on the ballot for the Nov. 5 election is July 22. The last day is Aug. 19. Ella McCarthy covers local government for the Statesman. She will continue her local election coverage as more candidates file for the November 2024 election. To share tips or insight with McCarthy, email her at emccarthy@statesman.com. Austin American-Statesman reporter Tony Plohetski contributed to this story. In this study, we investigate whether a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) can generate informative parametric maps from the pre-processed CT perfusion data in patients with acute ischemic stroke in a clinical setting. The MSE was very low for two out of three maps, and low in the remaining map, showing good generalizability. Mean Dice scores from two different raters and the GT maps ranged from 0.80 to 0.87. Inter-rater concordance was high, and a strong correlation was found between lesion volumes of CNN maps and GT maps (0.99, 0.98, respectively). The agreement between our CNN-based perfusion maps and the state-of-the-art deconvolution-algorithm perfusion analysis maps, highlights the potential of machine learning methods applied to perfusion analysis. CNN approaches can reduce the volume of data required by deconvolution algorithms to estimate the ischemic core, and thus might allow the development of novel perfusion protocols with lower radiation dose deployed to the patient. Volume 17 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fninf.2023.852105 This article is part of the Research TopicInsights in Neuroinformatics: 2021View all 5 articles we investigate whether a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) can generate informative parametric maps from the pre-processed CT perfusion data in patients with acute ischemic stroke in a clinical setting Methods: The CNN training was performed on a subset of 100 pre-processed perfusion CT dataset All the data used for the training/testing of the network and for generating ground truth (GT) maps using a state-of-the-art deconvolution algorithm were previously pre-processed using a pipeline for motion correction and filtering Threefold cross validation had been used to estimate the performance of the model on unseen data Maps accuracy had been checked through manual segmentation of infarct core and total hypo-perfused regions on both CNN-derived and GT maps Concordance among segmented lesions was assessed using the Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) Correlation and agreement among different perfusion analysis methods were evaluated using mean absolute volume differences and coefficient of repeatability across lesion volumes Results: The MSE was very low for two out of three maps Mean Dice scores from two different raters and the GT maps ranged from 0.80 to 0.87 and a strong correlation was found between lesion volumes of CNN maps and GT maps (0.99 Conclusion: The agreement between our CNN-based perfusion maps and the state-of-the-art deconvolution-algorithm perfusion analysis maps highlights the potential of machine learning methods applied to perfusion analysis CNN approaches can reduce the volume of data required by deconvolution algorithms to estimate the ischemic core and thus might allow the development of novel perfusion protocols with lower radiation dose deployed to the patient Occlusion of a cerebral artery causes the sudden decrease of the blood perfusion in the vascular territory matching the occluded vessel The peripheral regions of the area affected by the vascular occlusion have their blood flow deficit reduced by the collateral circulation in comparison to the center of the affected territory originating from the center of the occluded vascular territory and progressively expanding to most peripheral regions Tmax has been found to approximate both penumbra and core identified with an increasing tissue perfusion delay (Demeestere et al., 2020) The role of CTP is of particular importance in patients with unknown time from the onset of symptoms, or out of the 4.5- and 6-hours’ window used to select patients for intra-venous and intra-arterial reperfusion treatments, respectively. Two trials (DAWN and DEFUSE) demonstrated the clinical usefulness of intra-arterial reperfusion in patients selected using CBV and CBF estimation based on CTP (Albers et al., 2018; Nogueira et al., 2018) Different algorithms are used to perform deconvolution of time-intensity curves, some of which are not public and may produce largely different maps (Kudo et al., 2010) as performed by deconvolution-based algorithms is probably the best choice to obtain realistic redundant information is acquired in order to overcome problems due to noise requiring a larger number of acquisitions and more X-ray exposure for the patients to perform a series of spatial pre-processing steps for noise and variance reduction and to extract the arterial input function (AIF) Luckily, Machine Learning (ML) approaches offer several potential advantages over canonical algorithms when applied to the problem of time-intensity curves deconvolution. In fact, ML techniques allow extracting information that is relatively insensitive to noise, misalignments, and intra-subjects variance (Dashtbani Moghari et al., 2021a; Li et al., 2021a) Several supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms–e.g., Support Vector Machines, Random Forests, Ridge Regression, Feed forward Neural Network - have been applied to CTP and MRI perfusion showing better performance compared to simpler linear models (McKinley et al., 2018; Cheng et al., 2021) The datasets and the CNN training were developed as a use case of the European project DeepHealth1: a framework envisioned to tackle the real needs of the health sector and facilitate the daily work of medical personnel and expert users in terms of image processing and the use and training of predictive models without the need of combining numerous tools the project will combine open High-Performance Computing infrastructure with ML techniques to support biomedical applications that require the analysis of large and complex biomedical datasets All procedures performed in this study involved human participants and thus followed the ethical standards of our institutional review board (Comitato Etico Interaziendale and the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards The requirement for written informed consent was waived because of the retrospective nature of the study CT Perfusion data gathered for this study is part of a larger open-access dataset developed for the DeepHealth project which now includes 258 consecutive patients, obtained retrospectively from hospital Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and is available for download (Gava et al., 2021) Perfusion data from a subset of 115 patients were extracted 115 subjects were randomly split into a training set of 100 used to compare our results to a gold standard method CT Perfusion acquisition parameters were as follows: Scanner GE 64 slice 89 volumes (40 mm axial coverage) with slice thickness 5 mm injection of 40 ml of Iodine contrast agent (300 mg/ml) at 4 ml/s speed We calculated perfusion maps, including CBF, CBV, and TTP, using a pipeline of spatial pre-processing and a state-of-the-art fast model-based non-linear regression (NLR) method developed by Bennink et al. (2016) Motion correction was done using Elastix 5.0.1, by rigid registration of all CTP frames to the first frame (Bennink et al., 2016) Registration was initiated on a coarse resolution level (8× down-sampling) The sum of squared differences between the frames was minimized using stochastic gradient descent with respectively 2,000 and 8,000 samples and 300 iterations per resolution level After motion correction, the CTP frames were filtered using a 3D bilateral filter, guided by the mean of all CTP frames (Klein et al., 2010) The spatial kernel size (standard deviation) was 3 mm and the range kernel size 20 Hounsfield units The CBV, CBF, and TTP were estimated by fitting a model to the measured attenuation curve in each voxel by means of non-linear regression. The model convolves the measured AIF with a box-shaped impulse response function (IRF). The CBF determines the height of the box, the MTT determines its width and the TTP determines its position on the time-axis (Tomasi and Manduchi, 1998) A downhill-simplex algorithm was used to minimize the sum of squared errors in 300 iterations Arterial input function and Venous output function (VOF) calculations were done automatically on a 100 voxels sample The box-shaped model developed by Bennink et al. (2016) describes the impulse response function (IRF) of the perfused tissue in terms of CBV The box-shaped IRF enables fast NLR analysis which is critical in a clinical setting such as ischemic stroke The time attenuation curve of the tissue and the relative CBV and TTP maps were estimated using the AIF in conjunction with the IRF the model automatically selects the optimal resolution(s) to extract features for the target training task the authors proposed an extraction with five different resolutions (from 572 × 572 down to 32 × 32) which required a large number of filters per layer from 64 at the highest resolution to 1,024 at the lowest we needed to introduce modifications at the architectural level to fit our problem For segmentation tasks a state-of-the-art choice is to use max-pooling layers for sub-sampling: The model takes scans of size 512 × 512 The bottleneck layer is placed after four encoding stages instead of using standard cross-entropy loss we minimized the mean squared error loss (MSE) which was compatible with the desired ground truth output No additional information (like the AIF) was provided to the CNN: all the information is implicitly extracted or inferred from the registered CT scans The model was pre-trained on 128 × 128 sub-sampled inputs for 250 epochs after that it was fine-tuned for 50 additional epochs on the full 512 × 512 resolution Training on full resolution images requires high consumption of GPU memory and the time needed to reach model convergence becomes very high allows us to reach a solution in a much shorter time since the task is simplified The pre-training step produces a suitable initialization for the model: this type of approach is often used for training generative networks and the results are comparable and smoother than those produced with very high dimensional image training The training of the entire model for each target is done using Adam with a learning rate 10–5 The output of the model was a 512 × 512 map (Figure 2), where all the pixel values were normalized in the range 0–1. The entire model was trained using an SGD optimization strategy with a learning rate decay policy self-tuned according to the performance on the validation set. The source code is publicly available at https://github.com/EIDOSLAB/Neural-Network-derived-perfusion-maps (A,B) CNN output maps from the testing set (CBV and TTP); (C,D) matching sections of GT maps There is a small infarct core displayed in the CBV map at the right basal ganglia (black arrows) and an extended penumbra showed in the CBF and TTP maps across right middle cerebral artery territories (white arrows) To evaluate the performance of the CNN model in generating new maps we implemented a threefold cross-validation protocol on the training dataset The accuracy of CNN maps was carried out through the segmentation of the infarct core (CBV) and total hypo-perfused territory (CBF, TTP), on the test set of 15 CNN-parametric maps. The process is performed manually by two expert radiologists using ITK-SNAP open-source software (Yushkevich et al., 2006) Segmentation was carried out section-wise following the axial direction To avoid bias induced by repetitive evaluation of the same patients GT-maps segmentation was performed by two different radiologists An example of a core segmentation on both CNN and GT maps is displayed in Figure 3 We notice that the map is perfectly reconstructed everywhere where the CNN generated map has a positive which however does not compromise the segmentation of the core area Core segmented on CNN CBV map (A); core segmented on GT CBV map (B); and the difference between the two maps (C) Penumbra volumes correspond to the mismatch between the total hypo-perfused region and the ischemic core The CNN segmented volumes from both raters were matched with the GT to assess overlapping regions by calculating the Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) Dice Similarity Coefficient was also calculated by matching CNN segmentations from different raters of the same set of maps to evaluate inter-rater concordance Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was used to assess the relationship between the lesion volumes on GT and CNN maps Bland-Altman and coefficient of repeatability (CR) analysis was also performed across volumes segmented on CNN and GT maps to assess agreement between the different methods Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess reliability across volumes segmented from different raters Friedman test was used to look into significant differences across volumes of segmented lesions Statistical analysis was performed using the 3D-convert toolbox from ITK-SNAP, intraclass_corr function in Python 3.6.5 (ICC1k, pingouin library),2 and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software (version 27.0.1.0) Threefold cross-validation results for CBV Train and validation curves for the threefold cross-validation results on CBV (A,B) A total of 3 out of 15 CTP datasets used as CNN testing exhibited normal perfusion parameters on both GT and CNN-parametric maps and resulted in negative vessel occlusion on CT Angiography (CTA) Normal perfusion maps were excluded from DSC analysis to avoid overestimation of the segmentations comparison results Segmented core (CBV) and hypo-perfused regions (CBF/TTP) volumes of the remaining patients were shown in Figures 5, 6; 3 out of 12 patients presented with hypo-perfused territories without ischemic cores Test sample ischemic core segmentation volumes from Rater 1 (R1) Test sample CBF/TTP segmentation volumes from Rater 1 (R1) Mean DSC for all CBV lesions ranged from 0.80 to 0.86 and for CBF/TTP lesions from 0.82 to 0.87, with high DSC values are found both across and within different methods of perfusion analysis. DSC resulting from segmentation matching are presented as mean and standard deviation (SD) in Table 2 Average DSC and lesion volumes Pearson correlations Friedman test did not reveal a significant difference among segmented volumes on CBV and CBF/TTP maps Mean ICC for absolute agreement were excellent for volumes segmented both on CBV and CBF/TTP maps (0.98 C.I We also found a strong positive correlation (r = 0.99, r = 0.98 with p < 0.001) between CBV–CBF/TPP lesion volume on GT and CNN maps for both raters (Table 2) Bland–Altman analysis displays good agreement between the CNN proposed method and the GT in estimating hypo-perfused regions on CTP maps (Figure 7); CR for Rater 1 and Rater 2 were 19.9–17.7 and 20.9–18.4 Bland–Altman plots showing agreement between total hypo-perfuse volume measurements derived from CNN and GT maps for Rater 1 (A,B) and Rater 2 (C,D) Mean absolute volume differences across the ischemic core from different observers and the GT were 1.20 ± 2.31 cm3 (Rater 1) and 2.27 ± 5.44 cm3 while mean volume differences for the whole hypo-perfused region were 9.37 ± 4.84 cm3 (Rater 1) and 8.52 ± 6.49 cm3 (Rater 2) The study demonstrated that parametric maps generated by our CNN-based approach are comparable to maps resulting from a state-of-the-art CTP NLR algorithm when working on pre-processed images There is a high DSC and strong linear correlation between CNN and GT segmented volumes The performance of the CNN at estimating ischemic core and penumbra is comparable to a state-of-the-art CTP NLR algorithm without additional inputs such as AIF or VOF In a model developed by Hess et al. (2018) the performance of the CNN in regressing the Tmax parameter on DSC-MRI perfusion imaging increases with the addition of bolus information. Future regression of the Tmax using our CNN could show if the assumption made by Hess et al. (2018) for MRI perfusion imaging also extend to CTP The CTP datasets were obtained from a population of patients eligible for reperfusion therapy with limited or no hypodense lesions on non-contrast CT Such a population was targeted to simulate the clinical setting where CTP is a key parameter for clinical decisions: when the time of onset is not known, CTP allows to effectively select patients for treatment, as shown in DAWN and DEFUSE-3 trials (Albers et al., 2018; Nogueira et al., 2018) Our method shows a highly accurate performance on patients with no vessel occlusion on CTA and normal CTP parameters on GT maps therefore suggesting that our CNN-based approach can yield highly reliable results even within the general population hypodense lesions may mark an ischemic core on CTP; this can introduce additional information to be exploited by our CNN-based approach without additionally estimating the tissue-curve offset as required by deconvolution-based algorithms The CNN was tested on a high dose/signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) dataset with limited axial coverage thus an application to noisier datasets is required for a complete comparison with state-of-the-art techniques our approach should undergo further testing on a larger population sample and use the latest CTP protocols from different scanners estimated voxel-wise MRI perfusion parameters using a deep learning approach exploiting the concentration time curve and AIF as inputs proved to be time-consuming and thus not ideal for clinical practice de la Rosa et al. (2021) developed a novel supervised CNN designed for estimating vascular function (AIF and VOF) in perfusion imaging, which showed improved CTP results when combined with traditional deconvolution algorithms. Their CNN used CTP 4D CTP data as inputs to generate the AIF and VOF curve associated with a probability map showing the voxel-wise contribution to the estimated parameters (de la Rosa et al., 2021) In their work, Dolz et al. (2018) propose a “multipath dense U-Net,” where the connectivity with respect to the original architecture is enhanced on the encoder side the model takes as input the perfusion maps (in particular and MTT) and outputs the segmentation of the infarcted tissue architecture is further modified by introducing inception modules in the encoder Segmentation of ischemic stroke lesions from MRI imaging is the task tackled by Kadry et al. (2021) a U-Net architecture is trained to learn and extract the segmentation of the ischemic stroke lesions Differently from the original U-Net architecture the authors leverage over the VGG-11 backbone having on the encoder side 32 and 512 filters in the various depth stages (which are then mirrored in the decoder) Very recently, Li et al. (2021b) have proposed a multi-scale U-Net model for ischemic stroke lesion segmentation. The authors here combine multiple convolution kernel sizes in the same layer, similarly to inception modules and as seen in the work from Dolz et al. (2018) but they also introduce the knowledge of dilated convolution which allows for extracting non-strictly local information In order to assess performance on segmentation of ischemic stroke lesions, Pinheiro et al. (2019) provided an extensive study on many configurations of U-Net and V-Nets applied to relatively small datasets of MRI and CT images The authors showed that deeper U-Nets perform better than shallow ones and that including CT modality improves the results they showed that employing perfusion maps yields much better results than using raw perfusion data alone In our work, we leverage the key messages from Pinheiro et al. (2019) to focus on the following question: can a neural network model produce perfusion maps that allow for a more accurate segmentation afterward we cannot base our work on the existing literature which has employed the U-Net model as a black box to extract the segmentation of the ischemic lesion from the raw perfusion or from the already-processed maps Instead of using the U-Net model to solve the segmentation problem we employ it to solve the regression problem of matching the perfusion maps These contain the information needed by the medical expert to predict the extension of the ischemic lesion The proposed CNN-based method generated informative AIF-independent perfusion maps of patients with AIS approximating perfusion mismatch in brain tissues very well Our ML model performed similarly to the state-of-the-art NLR perfusion analysis methods used as GT in estimating CBF More frequent use of ML methods for perfusion analysis can lead to the reduction of data inputs needed for perfusion mismatch prediction and therefore to a smaller radiation dose for the patients combining different ML approaches to CTP analysis and integrating clinical parameters in the model has the potential to bring new improved standards in terms of acquisition protocols and ischemic core prediction The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found below: The datasets generated for this study can be found in the Zenodo repository doi: 10.5281/zenodo.481760 and IEEE DataPort repository doi: 10.21227/x8ea-vh1 The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Comitato Etico Interaziendale Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements and MB contributed to the conception and design of the study and MB wrote the first draft of the manuscript All authors contributed to the manuscript revision This project was received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 825111, DeepHealth Project (https://doi.org/10.3030/825111) The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher Thrombectomy for stroke at 6 to 16 hours with selection by perfusion imaging Validity and reliability of a quantitative computed tomography score in predicting outcome of hyperacute stroke before thrombolytic therapy Fast nonlinear regression method for CT brain perfusion analysis Cerebral blood flow is the optimal CT perfusion parameter for assessing infarct core Imaging selection in ischemic stroke: Feasibility of automated CT-perfusion analysis Low-Dose CT with a residual encoder-decoder convolutional neural network Technical Note: U-net-generated synthetic CT images for magnetic resonance imaging-only prostate intensity-modulated radiation therapy treatment planning “CT perfusion imaging of the brain with machine learning,” in Proceedings of the international symposium on visual computing Acute ischemic stroke lesion core segmentation in CT perfusion images using fully convolutional neural networks Dashtbani Moghari Head movement during cerebral CT perfusion imaging of acute ischaemic stroke: Characterisation and correlation with patient baseline features Dashtbani Moghari Efficient radiation dose reduction in whole-brain CT perfusion imaging using a 3D GAN: Performance and clinical feasibility AIFNet: Automatic vascular function estimation for perfusion analysis using deep learning Review of perfusion imaging in acute ischemic stroke: From time to tissue Dense multi-path U-net for ischemic stroke lesion segmentation in multiple image modalities Google Scholar Perfusion CT and acute stroke imaging: Foundations Deconvolution-based CT and MR brain perfusion measurement: Theoretical model revisited and practical implementation details CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Predicting infarct core from computed tomography perfusion in acute ischemia with machine learning: Lessons from the ISLES challenge “Deep residual learning for image recognition,” in Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR) CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Synthetic perfusion maps: Imaging perfusion deficits in DSC-MRI with deep learning,” in Brainlesion: Glioma “A temporal deep learning approach for MR perfusion parameter estimation in stroke,” in Proceedings of the international conference on pattern recognition “U-Net supported segmentation of ischemic-stroke-lesion from brain MRI slices,” in Proceedings of the 2021 seventh international conference on bio signals Elastix: A toolbox for intensity-based medical image registration Domain-specific cues improve robustness of deep learning-based segmentation of CT volumes Theoretic basis and technical implementations of CT perfusion in acute ischemic stroke CT perfusion based machine learning model better predicts follow-up infarction in patients with acute ischemic stroke Differences in CT perfusion maps generated by different commercial software: Quantitative analysis by using identical source data of acute stroke patients RAPID automated CT perfusion in clinical practice Google Scholar Learning non-local perfusion textures for high-quality computed tomography perfusion imaging Precise segmentation of non-enhanced computed tomography in patients with ischemic stroke based on multi-scale U-Net deep network model A machine learning approach to perfusion imaging with dynamic susceptibility contrast MR Neural network–derived perfusion maps for the assessment of lesions in patients with acute ischemic stroke Thrombectomy 6 to 24 hours after stroke with a mismatch between deficit and infarct “V-net and U-net for ischemic stroke lesion segmentation in a small dataset of perfusion data,” in Brainlesion: Glioma van Walsum (Cham: Springer International Publishing) Prediction of final infarct volume from native CT perfusion and treatment parameters using deep learning “U-net: Convolutional networks for biomedical image segmentation,” in Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention–MICCAI 2015 Google Scholar “Bilateral filtering for gray and color images,” in Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on computer vision CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Computed tomographic perfusion predicts poor outcomes in a randomized trial of endovascular therapy STIR-net: Deep spatial-temporal image restoration net for radiation reduction in CT perfusion User-guided 3D active contour segmentation of anatomical structures: Significantly improved efficiency and reliability Automatic kidney lesion detection for CT images using morphological cascade convolutional neural networks “Automated segmentation of 3D anatomical structures on CT images by using a deep convolutional network based on end-to-end learning approach,” in Proceedings of the medical imaging 2017: Image processing Boghi A and Bergui M (2023) Neural network-derived perfusion maps: A model-free approach to computed tomography perfusion in patients with acute ischemic stroke Copyright © 2023 Gava, D’Agata, Tartaglione, Renzulli, Grangetto, Bertolino, Santonocito, Bennink, Vaudano, Boghi and Bergui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Federico D’Agata, ZmVkZXJpY28uZGFnYXRhQHVuaXRvLml0 Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish feel free to contact us via email editor@thevillager.com.na Ten Farmers Accused of Illegally Fencing Communal Land in Gava   By: Annakleta Haikera   Villagers in Gava have accused 10 farmers of illegally fencing off communal land Headman Eino Hamunime told The Villager that land disputes have persisted in the region with some residents allegedly selling… (WATCH) Trump proposes reopening of infamous Alcatraz prison amid illegal immigration crackdown Peru kidnapping leaves 13 dead in gold mine Vatican to send retired Popemobile to Gaza as an ambulance Cardinals hold final mass mourning Pope Francis ahead of conclave one missing after tourist boats capsize in China Media as the Bridge of Civilizations: A Global Call for Integrity and Cooperation Kenya-China: A Bold Blueprint for a Shared Future HESBON OWILA: Kenya Kwanza’s Dwindling Promise — and a Thin Thread of Hope Safeguarding Lives and the Economy: Why Product Integrity Must Be a National Priority Victor Bwire: It’s Time Media Took Responsibility for Its Rotten Core Uganda sign historic MoU to protect Mt Elgon biosphere reserve Climate change threat to Kenya’s national security CS Duale Urges Corporate Sector to Support Ecosystem Protection Emissions from building sector stopped rising for the first time since 2020 Greenpeace Africa Slams Kenya Forest Service for Downplaying Forest Threats Kenya to open consulate in Haiti to support peace mission Kindiki in Uganda for Extraordinary Summit on Somalia Peace Mission Wetang’ula to represent Kenya at Pope Francis’ funeral in Vatican President Ruto lands in Beijing ahead of 3-day State Visit Chinese enterprises in Kenya lead green growth Over 50,000 in China’s Hainan evacuated as Typhoon Trami grows – China Daily Over 60% of China’s population proficient in primary or higher digital skills – China Daily China urges US to cease arming Taiwan: FM spokesperson – China Daily 5.5-magnitude quake hits China’s Xinjiang: CENC – China Daily The system built on KRA’s Enterprise Integration Platform Gava Connect is set to streamline compliance for the real estate sector from a technology perspective Apr 10 – Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has unveiled an Electronic Rental Income Tax System (eRITS) to foster voluntary compliance among landlords and property owners Click here to connect with us on WhatsApp the Principal Secretary to The National Treasury Chris Kiptoo hailed the launch of the new system as a significant milestone in the Government’s commitment to ensuring a fair and efficient tax system that will contribute to national development.  “The government is committed to ensuring that the tax system remains fair and that compliance is as seamless as possible more efficient tax system that benefits everyone we aim to not only increase revenue collection but also create a more equitable and predictable tax environment that benefits both taxpayers and the government,” said PS Kiptoo His remarks were echoed by the Housing Secretary of the State Department of Housing and Urban Development Mr Athman Said who said that the real estate sector is now poised to be a major contributor to Kenya’s overall development through tax revenue.  Humphrey Wattanga has said the system is a voluntary compliance tool that aims to support and enhance tax compliance among rental property owners and agents adding that the system reflects KRA’s commitment to service excellence “eRITS is designed to enable seamless integration with the KRA ecosystem for purposes of tax computation and payment; and is accessible through the Gava Connect API portal for system-to-system integration and as a service through the eCitizen platform The intention is to augment voluntary compliance within the sector while reducing administrative burdens associated with taxation.” He said we are taking a bold step toward a future where tax compliance is not a burden but a shared responsibility for nation building,” added Mr Wattanga.  the Monthly Rental Income (MRI) is applicable to landlords earning between Ksh 288,000 and Ksh 15 million annually The MRI tax rate was reduced from 10% to 7.5% demonstrating the Government’s commitment to easing the burden on taxation among taxpayers.  tax revenues collected through MRI stood at Ksh 14.4 Billion translating to a 5.2% year on year growth compared to a collection of Ksh 13.6 Billion and Ksh 12.3 Billion in the previous financial years.  a Kenyan police officer who is reported to have gone missing 37 days ago while on an assignment.. a former police officer and a security analyst said the incident exposed glaring weaknesses in the country’s VIP protection protocols and the Police Reforms Working Group-Kenya May 5 – The High Court has declared Worldcoin’s collection of Kenyans’ biometric date unconstitutional after it failed to conduct a Data.. Widely shared video clips show the footwear striking the president's left arm as he held it aloft while he was speaking This marks the first time that officers have been charged under the International Crimes Act President William Ruto pointed to the increasing cases of GBV and femicide which have continued to cause immense physical About | Privacy Policy | Advertising| Editorial | Contact Us Subscribe | Login “Paraguayan Industrial Engineer who loves rock music and spending time with family and friends.” Hometown: Santa Rita – Alto Parana – Paraguay Fun Fact About Yourself: I have watched neither Harry Potter nor Lord of the Rings Undergraduate School and Major: Facultad de Ingenieria de la Universidad Nacional de Asuncion (National University of Asuncion – School of Engineering) – Industrial Engineering Most Recent Employer and Job Title: AB-InBev Paraguay Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Besides managing the P&L of one of the most important companies in Paraguay I feel proud of an educational program I created to take University Students to teach financial math to high school students What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why what was the key part of the MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you The experiential learning in developing leadership skills I believe that the experiences with other classmates combined with constant feedback and introspection are the most effective way to shape one’s leadership style What has been the most surprising thing you’ve found about Stanford GSB so far The variety of resources available for the students in terms of professional and personal development What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process This question required me to connect several aspects of my life to find the answer What is the biggest epiphany you’ve gained about yourself or the world since you arrived at Stanford GSB Most highly successful people seem to have a very simplistic view of the world CEO of AB-InBev emphasizes 10 principles of the company one of them being:  “We believe common sense and simplicity are usually better guidelines than unnecessary sophistication and complexity.” And when he talks about the business he usually uses examples of a person from the company negotiating with real people This makes it very easy for others to relate to the point he is trying to convey What do you see yourself doing ten years from now I see myself working on projects that aim at increasing the efficiency and profitability of small businesses and have high socio-economic impact I see myself going back to Paraguay because I want to have an impact there Our Partner Sites: Poets&Quants for Execs | Poets&Quants for Undergrads | Tipping the Scales | We See Genius Website Design By: Yellowfarmstudios.com "We must support those who want to invest and bring this type of project to the country" On the road to energy and environmental transition "we have ambitious goals that we want to respect" but we also need "graduality because in some cases it is necessary to slow down to safeguard the country's economy" speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of the largest agri-voltaic park in Italy built in Engie “We must support those who want to invest and bring this type of project to the country,” he added companies have understood this and the institutions must stand by them in accompanying this ecological transition" "I am very honored - she added - to inaugurate the fruit of this collaboration between two large and beautiful companies that wanted to invest in this area and in renewables" “are an opportunity for everyone” also for “new training Old jobs are left behind but are absorbed by green jobs” and therefore “new jobs and skills are created