A Stride Toward Wine Yield Estimation from Images: Metrological Validation of Grape Berry Number, Radius, and Volume Estimation.

Yield estimation is a key point theme for precision agriculture, especially for small fruits and in-field scenarios. This paper focuses on the metrological validation of a novel deep-learning model that robustly estimates both the number and the radii of grape berries in vineyards using color images, allowing the computation of the visible (and total) volume of grape clusters, which is necessary to reach the ultimate goal of estimating yield production. The proposed algorithm is validated by analyzing its performance on a custom dataset.

[Patient-reported outcomes: the experience of United Kingdom's NHS and suggestions for the Italian NHS].

This paper describes the applications of the patient-reported outcome measures, focusing on the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. Over the years the use of some related measures has widened, moving from research to clinical practice, and, only recently, to the healthcare quality assessment. The program launched by the United Kingdom Department of Health in April 2009 falls into the latter one, and requires the collection of patient-reported outcome measures for selected surgical procedures (hip or knee replacement, inguinal hernia, varicose veins) within all the health facilities financed by the National Health Service.

[Patient-reported outcomes: definition and measurement].

The concept of "patient-reported outcomes" have been proposed by the Food and Drug Administration in the year 2000, in order to describe one of the different and potential sources of information on the drug's safety and effectiveness. It represents an "umbrella" term, which covers a multiplicity of meanings and primarily identifies a conceptual approach and a methodology specifically oriented to the patients' point of view on outcomes, instead of the traditional clinical and professional perspective. The patient-reported outcomes measures are frequently self-completed questionnaires.