eHealth in Antarctica: a model ready to be transferred to every-day life

Antarctic expeditions are an important testing area for technology and procedures, such as telemedicine, with analogies for space and other extreme, isolated and remote environments. Telemedicine has also implications in reducing risks and costs related to accidents and health-care in general in Antarctica. During the last 14 years, since the very beginning of Italian Antarctic activities, we have tested many different technological solutions, and set up a link between one of the largest Italian hospitals, San Camillo in Rome, and the principal Italian Antarctic Base at Terra Nova Bay. In this paper, we discuss the road we have travelled in a field with many fast technological changes, and reflect on procedures and protocols. Once we had Health, today we have eHealth.(Int J Circumpolar Health 2004; 63(4):436-442)Keywords: Antarctic, maritime satellites, telemedicin

Validation of ELISA kits for determination of Inhibin-A and Estradiol-17-beta concentrations in Buffalo plasma

The aim was to evaluate the suitability of two commercial ELISA kits for human serum or plasma, to measure Inhibin-A (In-A) and Estradiol-17-beta (E2) concentrations in buffalo plasma. Blood samples were obtained by jugular venipuncture from buffalo heifers and cows, and plasma samples were stored at – 20°C until assays. Precision of the methods was evaluated by the intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation (CVs) of buffalo plasma sample replicates, at different concentrations. Accuracy was evaluated calculating the recovery rates of different proportions of the highest standard added to a buffalo plasma sample at low concentration (observed/expected values x 100). Linearity was evaluated by serially diluting one buffalo plasma sample at high concentration with the assay buffer and calculating by regression analysis the parallelism of the resulting line with the standard line. Intra-assay CVs were 11% and 15.1% for In-A and 1.8% and 3.3% for E2. Inter-assay CVs were 13.9% and 7.4% for In-A and E2, respectively. Mean recovery rate was 97.9% and 98.5% for In-A and E2, respectively. Dilution tests gave good parallelism between the lines obtained and the standard lines. It is concluded that the kits tested are suitable and reliable for buffalo plasma samples

A Bayesian decision approach to rainfall thresholds based flood warning

International audienceOperational real time flood forecasting systems generally require a hydrological model to run in real time as well as a series of hydro-informatics tools to transform the flood forecast into relatively simple and clear messages to the decision makers involved in flood defense. The scope of this paper is to set forth the possibility of providing flood warnings at given river sections based on the direct comparison of the quantitative precipitation forecast with critical rainfall threshold values, without the need of an on-line real time forecasting system. This approach leads to an extremely simplified alert system to be used by non technical stakeholders and could also be used to supplement the traditional flood forecasting systems in case of system failures. The critical rainfall threshold values, incorporating the soil moisture initial conditions, result from statistical analyses using long hydrological time series combined with a Bayesian utility function minimization. In the paper, results of an application of the proposed methodology to the Sieve river, a tributary of the Arno river in Italy, are given to exemplify its practical applicability

Stochastic rainfall interpolation and downscaling

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Orographic effects on convective precipitation and space-time rainfall variability: preliminary results

International audienceIn the EFFS Project, an attempt has been made to develop a general framework to study the predictability of severe convective rainfall events in the presence of orography. Convective activity is embedded in orographic rainfall and can be thought as the result of several physical mechanisms. Quantifying its variability on selected area and time scales requires choosing the best physical representation of the rainfall variability on these scales. The main goal was (i) to formulate a meaningful set of experiments to compute the oscillation of variance due to convection inside model forecasts in the presence of orography and (ii) to give a statistical measure of it that might be of value in the operational use of atmospheric data. The study has been limited to atmospheric scales that span the atmosphere from 2 to 200 km and has been focused on extreme events with deep convection. Suitable measures of the changing of convection in the presence of orography have been related to the physical properties of the rainfall environment. Preliminary results for the statistical variability of the convective field are presented

Pressure-driven Demand and Leakage Simulation for Water Distribution Networks

Copyright © 2008 American Society of Civil EngineersIncreasingly, water loss via leakage is acknowledged as one of the main challenges facing water distribution system operations. The consideration of water loss over time, as systems age, physical networks grow, and consumption patterns mature, should form an integral part of effective asset management, rendering any simulation model capable of quantifying pressure-driven leakage indispensable. To this end, a novel steady-state network simulation model that fully integrates into a classical hydraulic representation, pressure-driven demand and leakage at the pipe level is developed and presented here. After presenting a brief literature review about leakage modeling, the importance of a more realistic simulation model allowing for leakage analysis is demonstrated. The algorithm is then tested from a numerical standpoint and subjected to a convergence analysis. These analyses are performed on a case study involving two networks derived from real systems. Experimentally observed convergence/error statistics demonstrate the high robustness of the proposed pressure-driven demand and leakage simulation model

Follicular development, plasma Inhibin-A and Estradiol-17-beta concentrations in Buffalo cows during different treatment schedules for MOET programs

Buffalo cows were submitted to three superovulatory treatments. T1 (n = 7): PRID for 10 days (d0-d9) plus decreasing doses of 500 IU FSH/LH (12 h-intervals d7‑d10); T2 (n = 8): PRID for 11 d (d0-d10) plus 2000 IU PMSG at d7; T3 (n = 9): PRID for 11 d plus 2000 IU PMSG at d7 and decreasing doses of 175 IU FSH/LH (12 h-intervals d10‑ d11). Overall plasma inhibin‑A (In-A) concentrations correlated with large follicles (LF, diameter >6mm, R=0.83, P10 mm at d12- 13 (T1=5.0+/-1.4, T2=1.2+/-0.9, T3=8.3+/-2.3). In-A concentrations significantly rised at d11-13 of T1 and T3. In-A seems a good indicator of the follicular development during superovulation in buffalo cows, while E2 is not. Furthermore T3 was followed by better ovarian follicular responses

Macro Minerals and Trace Elements in Milk of Dairy Buffaloes and Cows Reared in Mediterranean Areas

Aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in Ca, P, K, Na, Mg, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Se, Mo, Co, Li, B, Ti, Rb, and Sr concentrations in milk from buffaloes and cows reared in the same farm in Mediterranean areas and fed diets including the same ingredients. Individual milk samples were obtained from 32 Mediterranean buffaloes and 29 Italian Friesian cows and samples of milk, dietary ingredients and drinking water were analyzed for the investigated chemical elements by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Data about milk element concentrations were processed by one-way analysis of variance. Buffalo milk contains higher concentrations of Ca, P, Mg, Zn, Fe, Cu, B, Ti, and Sr, and lower concentrations of K, Na, Mo, Li, and Rb compared to cow milk, whereas milk from both species contains similar concentrations of Mn, Se, and Co. The concentrations of the investigated elements in the diet were similar for both species and the differences observed between buffalo and cow milk were not dependent on environmental factors

Distribution of selected trace elements in the major fractions of donkey milk

The aim of this study was to evaluate the concentrations of Zn, Cu, Mn, Se, Mo, Co, Li, B, Ti, Cr, Rb, Sr, Cd, and Pb in donkey milk and their distribution in major milk fractions (i.e., fat, casein, whey proteins, and aqueous phase). Individual milk samples were provided by 16 clinically healthy lactating donkeys. Subsequent centrifugation, ultracentrifugation, and ultrafiltration were carried out to remove fat, casein, and whey proteins to obtain skim milk, a supernatant whey fraction, and the aqueous phase of milk, respectively. Concentrations of the elements were measured in whole milk and fractions by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, and the concentrations associated with fat, casein, and whey proteins were then calculated. The effect of removal of fat, casein, and whey proteins was determined by repeated-measures ANOVA. The fat fraction of donkey milk carried a small (∼4.5% to 13.5%) but significant proportion of Mo, Co, Ti, Cr, and Sr. The casein fraction in donkey milk carried almost all milk Zn, a majority of Cu and Mn, and most of Mo, Ti, and Sr. Relevant proportions, between 20% and 36%, of Se, Co, and Cr were also associated with caseins. The majority of Se, Co, Li, B, Cr, and Rb, and relevant proportions of Mn, Mo, Ti, and Sr were found in soluble form (ultracentrifuged samples) and distributed between whey proteins and the aqueous phase of milk (ultrafiltered samples). Whey proteins in donkey milk carried the majority of milk Se and Co. All Li and B was present in the aqueous phase of milk, which also contained most Rb and Cr, and 17% to 42% of Mn, Se, Mo, Co, Ti, and Sr