Servicios y visualización web para el control de simulaciones

[ES] La realización de los nuevos estudios de gestión de la demanda requiere nuevas aproximaciones en las que la red eléctrica se analiza como un sistema complejo. Estos están formados por un gran número de entidades fuertemente enlazadas entre sí. Se afronta el reto de añadir la capacidad de interacción sobre una simulación de sistemas complejos en tiempo de ejecución. Pero, ¿Cómo abordar la representación de un sistema complejo de tal manera que sea fácilmente gestionable por una persona?, o ¿Cómo ofrecer una manera sencilla de alterar la simulación?. Con esta idea nace Simulation Gateway Interface, un framework que permite hacer accesibles las simulaciones a través de una interfaz gráfica.

Species identification, distributioin and reproductive interactions of common smoot-hound and blackspotted smooth-hound shark (Genus mustelus) in the Adriatic Sea

Longstanding taxonomic ambiguity and uncertainty exist in the identification of the common (M. mustelus) and blackspotted (M. punctulatus) smooth-hound in the Adriatic Sea. The lack of a clear and accurate method of morphological identification, leading to frequent misidentification, prevents the collation of species-specific landings and survey data for these fishes and hampers the delineation of the distribution ranges and stock boundaries of the species. In this context, adequate species-specific conservation and management strategies can not be applied without risks of population declining and local extinction. In this thesis work I investigated the molecular ecology of the two smooth-hound sharks which are abundant in the demersal trawl surveys carried out in the NC Adriatic Sea to monitor and assess the fishery resources. Ecological and evolutionary relationships were assessed by two molecular tests: a DNA barcoding analysis to improve species identification (and consequently the knowledge of their spatial ecology and taxonomy) and a hybridization assay based on the nuclear codominant marker ITS2 to evaluate reproductive interactions (hybridization or gene introgression). The smooth-hound sharks (N=208) were collected during the MEDITS 2008 and 2010 campaigns along the Italian and Croatian coasts of the Adriatic Sea, in the Sicilian Channel and in the Algerian fisheries. Since the identification based on morphological characters is not strongly reliable, I performed a molecular identification of the specimens producing for each one the cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene sequence (ca. 640 bp long) and compared them with reference sequences from different databases (GenBank and BOLD). From these molecular ID data I inferred the distribution of the two target species in the NC Adriatic Sea. In almost the totality of the MEDITS hauls I found no evidence of species sympatry. The data collected during the MEDITS survey showed an almost different distribution of M. mustelus (confined along the Italian coasts) and M. punctulatus (confined along the Croatian coasts); just one sample (Gulf of Venice, where probably the ranges of the species overlap) was found to have catches of both the species. Despite these data results suggested no interaction occurred between my two target species at least during the summertime (the period in which MEDITS survey is carried out), I still wanted to know if there were inter-species reproductive interactions so I developed a simple molecular genetic method to detect hybridization. This method is based on DNA sequence polymorphism among species in the nuclear ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 locus (ITS2). Its application to the 208 specimens collected raised important questions regarding the ecology of this two species in the Adriatic Sea. In fact results showed signs of hybridization and/or gene introgression in two sharks collected during the trawl survey of 2008 and one collected during the 2010 one along the Italian and Croatian coasts. In the case that it will be confirmed the hybrid nature of these individuals, a spatiotemporal overlapping of the mating behaviour and ecology must occur. At the spatial level, the northern part of the Adriatic Sea (an area where the two species occur with high frequency of immature individuals) could likely play the role of a common nursery area for both species.

Studio comparativo dei sistemi di gestione dei metadati per le federazioni di identità

Questa Tesi mira a comparare diversi sistemi software di gestione dei metadati utilizzate dalle maggiori federazioni di identità europee e utilizzati dalle Organizzazioni di Formazione e Istruzione per il proprio Identity Management.

Comunicazione d'impresa in Alto Adige: Indagine sulle strategie di gestione del multilinguismo nelle PMI insediate in un territorio di contatto linguistico

La ricerca sulla comunicazione e gestione multilingue della conoscenza in azienda si è sinora concentrata sulle multinazionali o PMI in fase di globalizzazione. La presente ricerca riguarda invece le PMI in zone storicamente multilingui al fine di studiare se l’abitudine all’uso di lingue diverse sul mercato locale possa rappresentare un vantaggio competitivo. La tesi illustra una ricerca multimetodo condotta nel 2012-2013 in Alto Adige/Südtirol. Il dataset consiste in 443 risposte valide a un questionario online e 23 interviste con manager e imprenditori locali. Le domande miravano a capire come le aziende altoatesine affrontino la sfida del multilinguismo, con particolare attenzione ai seguenti ambiti: comunicazione multilingue, documentazione, traduzione e terminologia. I risultati delineano un quadro generale delle strategie di multilinguismo applicate in Alto Adige, sottolineandone punti di forza e punti deboli. Nonostante la presenza di personale multilingue infatti il potenziale vantaggio competitivo che ne deriva non è sfruttato appieno: le aziende si rivolgono ai mercati in cui si parla la loro stessa lingua (le imprese a conduzione italiana al mercato nazionale, quelle di lingua tedesca ad Austria e Germania). La comunicazione interna è multilingue solo nei casi in sia imprescindibile. Le “traduzioni fai-da-te” offrono l’illusione di gestire lingue diverse, ma il livello qualitativo rimane limitato. I testi sono sovente tradotti da personale interno privo di competenze specifiche. Anche nella cooperazione con i traduttori esterni si evidenza la mancata capacità di ottenere il massimo profitto dagli investimenti. La tesi propone delle raccomandazioni pratiche volte a ottimizzare i processi attuali e massimizzare la resa delle risorse disponibili per superare la sfida della gestione e comunicazione multilingue. Le raccomandazioni non richiedono investimenti economici di rilievo e sono facilmente trasferibili anche ad altre regioni multilingui/di confine, come ad altre PMI che impiegano personale plurilingue. Possono dunque risultare utili per un elevato numero di imprese.

Assessment of the resilience of coral reefs to natural and human disturbances by means of recruitment panels in Indo-Pacific

Indo-Pacific region encompasses about 75% of world's coral reefs, but hard coral cover in this region experienced a 32% region-wide decline since 1970s. This great change is primarily ascribable to natural and anthropogenic pressures, including climate change and human activities effects. Coral reef conservation requires management strategies oriented to maintain their diversity and the capacity to provide ecosystem goods and services. Coral reef resilience, i.e. the capacity to recover after disturbances, is critical to their long-term persistence. The aims of the present study were to design and to test field experiments intended to measure changes in recruitment processes, as a fundamental aspect of the coral reef resilience. Recruitment experiments, using artificial panels suspended in the water column, were carried out in two Indo-Pacific locations affected by different disturbances: a new mine in Bangka Island (Indonesia), and the increased sedimentation due to coastal dynamics in Vavvaru Island (Maldives). One (or more) putatively disturbed site(s) was selected to be tested against 3 randomly selected control sites. Panels’ arrangement simulates 2 proximities to living corals, i.e. the sources of propagules: few centimetres and 2 meters over. Panels were deployed simultaneously at each site and left submerged for about five months. Recruits were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level and recruited assemblages were analysed in terms of percent cover. In general it was not possible to detect significant differences between the benthic assemblages recruited in disturbed and control sites. The high variability observed in recruits assemblages structure among control sites may be so large to mask the possible disturbance effects. Only few taxa showed possible effects of the disturb they undergo. The field tests have highlighted strengths and weaknesses of the proposed approach and, based on these results, some possible improvements were suggested.

Gender, age and ethnic aspects of analgesia in acute abdominal pain: is analgesia even across the groups?

Numerous studies have shown differences in pain perception between men and women, which may affect pain management strategies.

"The need obliged us" : culture as capacity during the Hurricane Stan emergency response. A case study from Tectitan, Huehuetenango, Guatemala

A major deficiency in disaster management plans is the assumption that pre-disaster civil-society does not have the capacity to respond effectively during crises. Following from this assumption a dominant emergency management strategy is to replace weak civil-society organizations with specialized disaster organizations that are often either military or Para-military and seek to centralize decision-making. Many criticisms have been made of this approach, but few specifically addresses disasters in the developing world. Disasters in the developing world present unique problems not seen in the developed world because they often occur in the context of compromised governments, and marginalized populations. In this context it is often community members themselves who possess the greatest capacity to respond to disasters. This paper focuses on the capacity of community groups to respond to disaster in a small town in rural Guatemala. Key informant interviews and ethnographic observations are used to reconstruct the community response to the disaster instigated by Hurricane Stan (2005) in the municipality of Tectitán in the Huehuetenango department. The interviews were analyzed using techniques adapted from grounded theory to construct a narrative of the events, and identify themes in the community’s disaster behavior. These themes are used to critique the emergency management plans advocated by the Guatemalan National Coordination for the Reduction of Disasters (CONRED). This paper argues that CONRED uncritically adopts emergency management strategies that do not account for the local realities in communities throughout Guatemala. The response in Tectitán was characterized by the formation of new organizations, whose actions and leadership structure were derived from “normal” or routine life. It was found that pre-existing social networks were resilient and easily re-oriented meet the novel needs of a crisis. New or emergent groups that formed during the disaster utilized social capital accrued by routine collective behavior, and employed organizational strategies derived from “normal” community relations. Based on the effectiveness of this response CONRED could improve its emergency planning on the local-level by utilizing the pre-existing community organizations rather than insisting that new disaster-specific organizations be formed.

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT IN REMOTE SENSING AND INNOVATIVE APPLICATION TO VOLCANOLOGY

The integration of remote monitoring techniques at different scales is of crucial importance for monitoring of volcanoes and assessment of the associated hazard. In this optic, technological advancement and collaboration between research groups also play a key role. Vhub is a community cyberinfrastructure platform designed for collaboration in volcanology research. Within the Vhub framework, this dissertation focuses on two research themes, both representing novel applications of remotely sensed data in volcanology: advancement in the acquisition of topographic data via active techniques and application of passive multi-spectral satellite data to monitoring of vegetated volcanoes. Measuring surface deformation is a critical issue in analogue modelling of Earth science phenomena. I present a novel application of the Microsoft Kinect sensor to measurement of vertical and horizontal displacements in analogue models. Specifically, I quantified vertical displacement in a scaled analogue model of Nisyros volcano, Greece, simulating magmatic deflation and inflation and related surface deformation, and included the horizontal component to reconstruct 3D models of pit crater formation. The detection of active faults around volcanoes is of importance for seismic and volcanic hazard assessment, but not a simple task to be achieved using analogue models. I present new evidence of neotectonic deformation along a north-south trending fault from the Mt Shasta debris avalanche deposit (DAD), northern California. The fault was identified on an airborne LiDAR campaign of part of the region interested by the DAD and then confirmed in the field. High resolution LiDAR can be utilized also for geomorphological assessment of DADs, and I describe a size-distance analysis to document geomorphological aspects of hummock in the Shasta DAD. Relating the remote observations of volcanic passive degassing to conditions and impacts on the ground provides an increased understanding of volcanic degassing and how satellite-based monitoring can be used to inform hazard management strategies in nearreal time. Combining a variety of satellite-based spectral time series I aim to perform the first space-based assessment of the impacts of sulfur dioxide emissions from Turrialba volcano, Costa Rica, on vegetation in the surrounding environment, and establish whether vegetation indices could be used more broadly to detect volcanic unrest.

Response of temperate grasslands at different altitudes to simulated summer drought differed but scaled with annual precipitation

Water is an important resource for plant life. Since climate scenarios for Switzerland predict an average reduction of 20% in summer precipitation until 2070, understanding ecosystem responses to water shortage, e.g. in terms of plant productivity, is of major concern. Thus, we tested the effects of simulated summer drought on three managed grasslands along an altitudinal gradient in Switzerland from 2005 to 2007, representing typical management intensities at the respective altitude. We assessed the effects of experimental drought on above- and below-ground productivity, stand structure (LAI and vegetation height) and resource use (carbon and water). Responses of community above-ground productivity to reduced precipitation input differed among the three sites but scaled positively with total annual precipitation at the sites (R2=0.85). Annual community above-ground biomass productivity was significantly reduced by summer drought at the alpine site receiving the least amount of annual precipitation, while no significant decrease (rather an increase) was observed at the pre-alpine site receiving highest precipitation amounts in all three years. At the lowland site (intermediate precipitation sums), biomass productivity significantly decreased in response to drought only in the third year, after showing increased abundance of a drought tolerant weed species in the second year. No significant change in below-ground biomass productivity was observed at any of the sites in response to simulated summer drought. However, vegetation carbon isotope ratios increased under drought conditions, indicating an increase in water use efficiency. We conclude that there is no general drought response of Swiss grasslands, but that sites with lower annual precipitation seem to be more vulnerable to summer drought than sites with higher annual precipitation, and thus site-specific adaptation of management strategies will be needed, especially in regions with low annual precipitation.

DiepRuR

Aufbau einer föderativen Dienstlandschaft in der Ruhr-Region auf Basis von SAML mit dem Ziel eine organisationsübergreifende Nutzung von webbasierten IT-Diensten zu ermöglichen

Determining the long-term changes in biodiversity and provisioning services along a transect from Central Europe to the Mediterranean

Climate, land use and fire are strong determinants of plant diversity, potentially resulting in local extinctions, including rare endemic and economically valuable species. While climate and land use are decisive for vegetation composition and thus the species pool, fire disturbance can lead to landscape fragmentation, affecting the provisioning of important ecosystem services such as timber and raw natural resources. We use multi-proxy palaeoecological data with high taxonomic and temporal resolution across an environmental gradient to assess the long-term impact of major climate shifts, land use and fire disturbance on past vegetation openness and plant diversity (evenness and richness). Evenness of taxa is inferred by calculating the probability of interspecific encounter (PIE) of pollen and spores and species richness by palynological richness (PRI). To account for evenness distortions of PRI, we developed a new palaeodiversity measure, which is evenness-detrended palynological richness (DE-PRI). Reconstructed species richness increases from north to south regardless of time, mirroring the biodiversity increase across the gradient from temperate deciduous to subtropical evergreen vegetation. Climatic changes after the end of the last ice age contributed to biodiversity dynamics, usually by promoting species richness and evenness in response to warming. The data reveal that the promotion of diverse open-land ecosystems increased when human disturbance became determinant, while forests became less diverse. Our results imply that the today’s biodiversity has been shaped by anthropogenic forcing over the millennia. Future management strategies aiming at a successful conservation of biodiversity should therefore consider the millennia-lasting role of anthropogenic fire and human activities.

Identification of glacial meltwater runoff in a karstic environment and its implication for present and future water availability

Glaciers all over the world are expected to continue to retreat due to the global warming throughout the 21st century. Consequently, future seasonal water availability might become scarce once glacier areas have declined below a certain threshold affecting future water management strategies. Particular attention should be paid to glaciers located in a karstic environment, as parts of the meltwater can be drained by underlying karst systems, making it difficult to assess water availability. In this study tracer experiments, karst modeling and glacier melt modeling are combined in order to identify flow paths in a high alpine, glacierized, karstic environment (Glacier de la Plaine Morte, Switzerland) and to investigate current and predict future downstream water availability. Flow paths through the karst underground were determined with natural and fluorescent tracers. Subsequently, geologic information and the findings from tracer experiments were assembled in a karst model. Finally, glacier melt projections driven with a climate scenario were performed to discuss future water availability in the area surrounding the glacier. The results suggest that during late summer glacier meltwater is rapidly drained through well-developed channels at the glacier bottom to the north of the glacier, while during low flow season meltwater enters into the karst and is drained to the south. Climate change projections with the glacier melt model reveal that by the end of the century glacier melt will be significantly reduced in the summer, jeopardizing water availability in glacier-fed karst springs.

Dementia with lewy bodies--diagnosis and treatment

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) accounts for 15-20% of all autopsy confirmed dementias in old age. Characteristic histopathological changes are intracellular Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, with abundant senile plaques but sparse neurofibrillary tangles. Core clinical features are fluctuating cognitive impairment, persistent visual hallucinations and extrapyramidal motor symptoms (parkinsonism). One of these core features has to be present for a diagnosis of possible DLB, and two for probable DLB. Supportive features are repeated falls, syncope, transient loss of consciousness, neuroleptic sensitivity, delusions and hallucinations in other modalities. DLB is clinically under-diagnosed and frequently misclassified as systemic delirium or dementia due to Alzheimer's disease or cerebrovascular disease. Therapeutic approaches to DLB can pose difficult dilemmas in pharmacological management. Neuroleptic medication is relatively contraindicated because some patients show severe neuroleptic sensitivity, which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Antiparkinsonian medication has the potential to exacerbate psychotic symptoms and may be relatively ineffective at relieving extrapyramidal motor symptoms. Recently there is converging evidence that treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors can offer a safe alternative for the symptomatic treatment of cognitive and neuropsychiatric features in DLB. This review will focus on the clinical characteristics of DLB, its differential diagnosis and on possible management strategies.

Recurrence due to neoplastic seeding in head and neck cancer: report of two cases and review of the literature

AIMS AND BACKGROUND Tumor progression due to seeding of tumor cells after definitive treatment for squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck is an uncommon condition that can considerably worsen the outcome of patients with head and neck cancer. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN We report two cases of recurrence due to neoplastic seeding from oropharyngeal and oral cancer, respectively. We performed a literature review with MEDLINE as the main search engine. RESULTS Seeding was found to occur most often in tracheotomy scars and gastrostomy sites. The oral cavity, hypopharynx and oropharynx were the primary sites in most cases, and advanced tumor stage seemed to be a risk factor for seeding. Treatment options include salvage surgery, which requires thorough resections, radiotherapy when possible, and palliative management. The prognosis of such events is poor. CONCLUSION Although neoplastic seeding is a well-known phenomenon in cancer surgery, many questions remain unanswered, especially regarding preventive measures and management strategies.

NaV1.5 and interacting proteins in human arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy

Evaluation of: Noorman M, Hakim S, Kessler E et al. Remodeling of the cardiac sodium channel, connexin43, and plakoglobin at the intercalated disk in patients with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. Heart Rhythm 10(3), 412-419 (2013). Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC) is a heart muscle disease characterized by a progressive replacement of the ventricular myocardium with adipose and fibrous tissue. This disease is often associated with mutations in genes encoding desmosomal proteins in the majority of patients. Based on results obtained from recent experimental models, a disturbed distribution of gap junction proteins and cardiac sodium channels may also be observed in AC phenotypes, secondary to desmosomal dysfunction. The study from Noorman et al. examined heart sections from patients diagnosed with AC and performed immunohistochemical analyses of N-cadherin, PKP2, PKG, Cx43 and the cardiac sodium channel NaV1.5. Altered expression/distribution of Cx43, PKG and NaV1.5 was found in most cases of patients with AC. The altered expression and/or distribution of NaV1.5 channels in AC hearts may play a mechanistic role in the arrhythmias leading to sudden cardiac death in AC patients. Thus, NaV1.5 should be considered as a supplemental element in the evaluation of risk stratification and management strategies. However, additional experiments are required to clearly understand the mechanisms leading to AC phenotypes.