547 research outputs found
Conservation actions for restoring the coastal lagoon habitats: Strategy and multidisciplinary approach of LIFE Lagoon Refresh
The Habitat Directive of European Union lists Costal Lagoons (habitat code 1150*) among priority habitats because they are in danger of disappearance. Natural ecosystems may recover from anthropogenic perturbations; however, the recovery can follow natural restoration or it can be redirected through ecological restoration by anthropogenic intervention. Accordingly, by collecting the available theoretical indications for restoration of estuarine and coastal areas, a methodological approach was detailed andit can be summarised into five issues: (i) Environmental context from which it began; (ii) Desired state to be achieved; (iii) Policies and socio-economic context; (iv) Typology of recovery and/or improvement of habitats and ecosystems; and (v) Methods for monitoring the impact of the project. The project strategy, management and measures of LIFE Lagoon Refresh were also presented and discussed, as a case study for the implementation of the multidisciplinary approach for restoration ecology in transitional waters. The project takes place in the northern Venice Lagoon (Italy), started in 2017 and it lasts 5 years. In the Venice Lagoon, since the 20th century, strong reductions of the typical salinity gradient of buffer areas between lagoon and mainland, and of reedbed extensions have occurred due to historic human interventions, with negative consequences on coastal lagoon habitats. To improve the conservation status of habitats and biodiversity of the area, the LIFE Lagoon Refresh project included several conservative actions, which are (i) the diversion of a freshwater flow from the Sile River into the lagoon; (ii) the restoration of intertidal morphology, through biodegradable structures; (iii) the reed and aquatic angiosperm transplantations with the involvement of local fishermen and hunters, and (iv) the reduction of hunting and fishing pressures in the intervention area. To achieve the restoration of the lagoon environment, the strategy of the project covered a combination of different aspects and tools, such as planning activities, through the involvement of local Institutions and communities; stakeholderâs involvement to increase awareness of environment conservation and socioeconomic value improvement; an ecological engineering approach; numerical models as supporting tool for planning and managing of conservation actions; environmental monitoring performed before and after the conservation actions
Association between the donor to recipient ICG-PDR variation rate and the functional recovery of the graft after orthotopic liver transplantation: A case series
Background: Despite current advances in liver transplant surgery, post-operative early allograft dysfunction still complicates the patient prognosis and graft survival. The transition from the donor has not been yet fully understood, and no study quantifies if and how the liver function changes through its transfer to the recipient. The indocyanine green dye plasma disappearance rate (ICG-PDR) is a simple validated tool of liver function assessment. The variation rate between the donor and recipient ICG-PDR still needs to be investigated. Materials and methods: Single-center retrospective study. ICG-PDR determinations were performed before graft retrieval (T1) and 24 hours after transplant (T2). The ICG-PDR relative variation rate between T1 and T2 was calculated to assess the graft function and suffering/recovering. Matched data were compared with the MEAF model of graft dysfunction. Objective: To investigate whether the variation rate between the donor ICG-PDR value and the recipient ICG-PDR measurement on first postoperative day (POD1) can be associated with the MEAF score. Results: 36 ICG-PDR measurements between 18 donors and 18 graft recipients were performed. The mean donor ICG-PDR was 22.64 (SD 6.35), and the mean receiver's ICG-PDR on 1st POD was 17.68 (SD 6.60), with a mean MEAF value of 4.51 (SD 1.23). Pearson's test stressed a good, linear inverse correlation between the ICG-PDR relative variation and the MEAF values, correlation coefficient -0.580 (p = 0.012). Conclusion: The direct correlation between the donor to recipient ICG-PDR variation rate and MEAF was found. Measurements at T1 and T2 showed an up- or downtrend of the graft performance that reflect the MEAF values
Status of the Super-B factory Design
The SuperB international team continues to optimize the design of an
electron-positron collider, which will allow the enhanced study of the origins
of flavor physics. The project combines the best features of a linear collider
(high single-collision luminosity) and a storage-ring collider (high repetition
rate), bringing together all accelerator physics aspects to make a very high
luminosity of 10 cm sec. This asymmetric-energy collider
with a polarized electron beam will produce hundreds of millions of B-mesons at
the (4S) resonance. The present design is based on extremely low
emittance beams colliding at a large Piwinski angle to allow very low
without the need for ultra short bunches. Use of crab-waist
sextupoles will enhance the luminosity, suppressing dangerous resonances and
allowing for a higher beam-beam parameter. The project has flexible beam
parameters, improved dynamic aperture, and spin-rotators in the Low Energy Ring
for longitudinal polarization of the electron beam at the Interaction Point.
Optimized for best colliding-beam performance, the facility may also provide
high-brightness photon beams for synchrotron radiation applications
Design of beam optics for the Future Circular Collider e+e- -collider rings
A beam optics scheme has been designed for the Future Circular Collider-e+e-
(FCC-ee). The main characteristics of the design are: beam energy 45 to 175
GeV, 100 km circumference with two interaction points (IPs) per ring,
horizontal crossing angle of 30 mrad at the IP and the crab-waist scheme [1]
with local chromaticity correction. The crab-waist scheme is implemented within
the local chromaticity correction system without additional sextupoles, by
reducing the strength of one of the two sextupoles for vertical chromatic
correction at each side of the IP. So-called "tapering" of the magnets is
applied, which scales all fields of the magnets according to the local beam
energy to compensate for the effect of synchrotron radiation (SR) loss along
the ring. An asymmetric layout near the interaction region reduces the critical
energy of SR photons on the incoming side of the IP to values below 100 keV,
while matching the geometry to the beam line of the FCC proton collider
(FCC-hh) [2] as closely as possible. Sufficient transverse/longitudinal dynamic
aperture (DA) has been obtained, including major dynamical effects, to assure
an adequate beam lifetime in the presence of beamstrahlung and top-up
injection. In particular, a momentum acceptance larger than +/-2% has been
obtained, which is better than the momentum acceptance of typical collider
rings by about a factor of 2. The effects of the detector solenoids including
their compensation elements are taken into account as well as synchrotron
radiation in all magnets. The optics presented in this paper is a step toward a
full conceptual design for the collider. A number of issues have been
identified for further study
Proposal for taking data with the KLOE-2 detector at the DANE collider upgraded in energy
This document reviews the physics program of the KLOE-2 detector at
DANE upgraded in energy and provides a simple solution to run the
collider above the -peak (up to 2, possibly 2.5 GeV). It is shown how a
precise measurement of the multihadronic cross section in the energy region up
to 2 (possibly 2.5) GeV would have a major impact on the tests of the Standard
Model through a precise determination of the anomalous magnetic moment of the
muon and the effective fine-structure constant at the scale. With a
luminosity of about cms, DANE upgraded in energy
can perform a scan in the region from 1 to 2.5 GeV in one year by collecting an
integrated luminosity of 20 pb (corresponding to a few days of data
taking) for single point, assuming an energy step of 25 MeV. A few years of
data taking in this region would provide important tests of QCD and effective
theories by physics with open thresholds for pseudo-scalar (like
the ), scalar (, etc...) and axial-vector (, etc...)
mesons; vector-mesons spectroscopy and baryon form factors; tests of CVC and
searches for exotics. In the final part of the document a technical solution
for the energy upgrade of DANE is proposed.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure
Environmental restoration by aquatic angiosperm transplants in transitional water systems: The Venice Lagoon as a case study
The paper reports the results obtained after 4 years of aquatic angiosperm transplants in areas of the Venice Lagoon (North Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean) where meadows almost disappeared due to eutrophication, pollution and overexploitation of clam resources. The project LIFE12 NAT/IT/000331-SeResto, funded by the European Union, allowed to recolonize the Habitat 1150* (coastal lagoons) in the northernmost part of the lagoon, by extensive manual transplants of small sods or single rhizomes of Zostera marina, Zostera noltei, Ruppia cirrhosa and, in some stations also of Cymodocea nodosa. Over the 4 years of the project more than 75,000 rhizomes were transplanted in 35 stations with the support of local stakeholders (fishermen, hunters and sport clubs). Plants took root in 32 stations forming extensive meadows on a surface of approx. 10 km2 even if some failures were recorded in areas affected by outflows of freshwater rich in nutrients and suspended particulate matter. The rapid recovery of the ecological status of the involved areas was the result of this meadow restoration, which was in compliance with Water Framework Directive (WFD 2000/60/EC) objectives. Moreover, the monitoring of environmental parameters in the water column and in surface sediments allowed to identify the best conditions for successful transplants. Small, widespread interventions and the participation of local stakeholders in the environmental recovery, make this action economically cheap and easily transposable in other similar environments
Early extubation with immediate non-invasive ventilation versus standard weaning in intubated patients for coronavirus disease 2019: a retrospective multicenter study
In patients intubated for hypoxemic acute respiratory failure (ARF) related to novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we retrospectively compared two weaning strategies, early extubation with immediate non-invasive ventilation (NIV) versus standard weaning encompassing spontaneous breathing trial (SBT), with respect to IMV duration (primary endpoint), extubation failures and reintubations, rate of tracheostomy, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay and mortality (additional endpoints). All COVID-19 adult patients, intubated for hypoxemic ARF and subsequently extubated, were enrolled. Patients were included in two groups, early extubation followed by immediate NIV application, and conventionally weaning after passing SBT. 121 patients were enrolled and analyzed, 66 early extubated and 55 conventionally weaned after passing an SBT. IMV duration was 9 [6â11] days in early extubated patients versus 11 [6â15] days in standard weaning group (p = 0.034). Extubation failures [12 (18.2%) vs. 25 (45.5%), p = 0.002] and reintubations [12 (18.2%) vs. 22 (40.0%) p = 0.009] were fewer in early extubation compared to the standard weaning groups, respectively. Rate of tracheostomy, ICU mortality, and ICU length of stay were no different between groups. Compared to standard weaning, early extubation followed by immediate NIV shortened IMV duration and reduced the rate of extubation failure and reintubation
Quality of Life in COVID-Related ARDS Patients One Year after Intensive Care Discharge (Odissea Study): A Multicenter Observational Study
Background: Investigating the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after intensive care unit (ICU) discharge is necessary to identify possible modifiable risk factors. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the HRQoL in COVID-19 critically ill patients one year after ICU discharge. Methods: In this multicenter prospective observational study, COVID-19 patients admitted to nine ICUs from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021 in Italy were enrolled. One year after ICU discharge, patients were required to fill in short-form health survey 36 (SF-36) and impact of event-revised (IES-R) questionnaire. A multivariate linear or logistic regression analysis to search for factors associated with a lower HRQoL and post-traumatic stress disorded (PTSD) were carried out, respectively. Results: Among 1003 patients screened, 343 (median age 63 years [57â70]) were enrolled. Mechanical ventilation lasted for a median of 10 days [2â20]. Physical functioning (PF 85 [60â95]), physical role (PR 75 [0â100]), emotional role (RE 100 [33â100]), bodily pain (BP 77.5 [45â100]), social functioning (SF 75 [50â100]), general health (GH 55 [35â72]), vitality (VT 55 [40â70]), mental health (MH 68 [52â84]) and health change (HC 50 [25â75]) describe the SF-36 items. A median physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) scores were 45.9 (36.5â53.5) and 51.7 (48.8â54.3), respectively, considering 50 as the normal value of the healthy general population. In all, 109 patients (31.8%) tested positive for post-traumatic stress disorder, also reporting a significantly worse HRQoL in all SF-36 domains. The female gender, history of cardiovascular disease, liver disease and length of hospital stay negatively affected the HRQoL. Weight at follow-up was a risk factor for PTSD (OR 1.02, p = 0.03). Conclusions: The HRQoL in COVID-19 ARDS (C-ARDS) patients was reduced regarding the PCS, while the median MCS value was slightly above normal. Some risk factors for a lower HRQoL have been identified, the presence of PTSD is one of them. Further research is warranted to better identify the possible factors affecting the HRQoL in C-ARDS
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