10 research outputs found
D7.2 1st experiment planning and community management
The present deliverable, outlines the overall strategy for approaching the tasks of (a) developing and sustaining an engaged school-based community of ProsocialLearn users; and (b)planning and facilitating small-scale and large-scale school-based evaluation studies of the Prosocial Learn technological solution. It also presents the preliminary work undertaken so far, and details the activities planned for M9-15 with respect to community development and small-scale studies
Prediction of intensive care admission and hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients using demographics and baseline laboratory data
Introduction: Optimized allocation of medical resources to patients with COVID-19 has been a critical concern since the onset of the pandemic.
Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, the authors used data from a Brazilian tertiary university hospital to explore predictors of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission and hospital mortality in patients admitted for COVID-19. Our primary aim was to create and validate prediction scores for use in hospitals and emergency departments to aid clinical decisions and resource allocation.
Results: The study cohort included 3,022 participants, of whom 2,485 were admitted to the ICU; 1968 survived, and 1054 died in the hospital. From the complete cohort, 1,496 patients were randomly assigned to the derivation sample and 1,526 to the validation sample. The final scores included age, comorbidities, and baseline laboratory data. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were very similar for the derivation and validation samples. Scores for ICU admission had a 75% accuracy in the validation sample, whereas scores for death had a 77% accuracy in the validation sample. The authors found that including baseline flu-like symptoms in the scores added no significant benefit to their accuracy. Furthermore, our scores were more accurate than the previously published NEWS-2 and 4C Mortality Scores.
Discussion and conclusions: The authors developed and validated prognostic scores that use readily available clinical and laboratory information to predict ICU admission and mortality in COVID-19. These scores can become valuable tools to support clinical decisions and improve the allocation of limited health resources
Alcune considerazioni relative al âmodello Fiuggiâ per il riparto interregionale delle risorse sanitarie.
L'articolo analizza gli accordi sul riparto delle risrose del SSN fra le regioni Italian
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Stem respiration and growth in a central Amazon rainforest
Key message: Annual stem CO2 efflux increases with stem wood production rates and are inhibited by daily moisture stress. Abstract: Tropical forests cycle a large amount of CO2 between the land and atmosphere, with a substantial portion of the return flux due tree respiratory processes. However, in situ estimates of woody tissue respiratory fluxes and carbon use efficiencies (CUEW) and their dependencies on physiological processes including stem wood production (Pw) and transpiration in tropical forests remain scarce. Here, we synthesize monthly Pw and daytime stem CO2 efflux (ES) measurements over 1 year from 80 trees with variable biomass accumulation rates in the central Amazon. On average, carbon flux to woody tissues, expressed in the same stem area normalized units as ES, averaged 0.90 ± 1.2 ”mol mâ2 sâ1 for Pw, and 0.55 ± 0.33 ”mol mâ2 sâ1 for daytime ES. A positive linear correlation was found between stem growth rates and stem CO2 efflux, with respiratory carbon loss equivalent to 15 ± 3% of stem carbon accrual. CUEW of stems was non-linearly correlated with growth and was as high as 77â87% for a fast-growing tree. Diurnal measurements of stem CO2 efflux for three individuals showed a daytime reduction of ES by 15â50% during periods of high sap flow and transpiration. The results demonstrate that high daytime ES fluxes are associated with high CUEW during fast tree growth, reaching higher values than previously observed in the Amazon Basin (e.g., maximum CUEW up to 77â87%, versus 30â56%). The observations are consistent with the emerging view that diurnal dynamics of stem water status influences growth processes and associated respiratory metabolism
ForBioEnergy - Forest Bioenergy in the Protected Mediterranean Areas
The ForBioEnergy project, funded within the INTERREG MED Programme 2014-2020, involved a Lead Partner (Regional Department for the Rural and Territorial Development, Sicily Region), 8 project partners from 4 Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Croatia) and 4 Associate Partners from Italy (Ente Parco delle Madonie, AIEL, Enviland, Petralia Sottana) and Croatia. It is an innovative project which bets on the chance to favor the sustainable development of the rural areas through the exploitation of the forest biomass for the production of bioenergy. However, most of the Mediterranean forests are within protected areas, where the current regulatory restrictions and the lack of management plans impede and slow down the possibility to exploit woody biomass. The main objective of the project was to fostering the bioenergy production in the protected areas, providing trans-national solutions for reducing barriers that currently hinder the development of the biomass sector, planning models in order to exploit the potential of biomass, whereas preserving the forest biodiversity. To achieve these goals the project includes an Action Plan for shaping new regulatory framework and permit route aimed at removing the administrative, technical and socio-economic barriers that hinder the use of biomass, a multi-level planning process, a set of sustainability requirements and quality standards of forest biomass. The key actors and stakeholders involved with bioenergy and biodiversity issues were identified, including institutions, and social and productive organization at regional and local level. A permanent technical panel has been established in each involved country to promote the exchange of knowledge and information between private and public key actors. The project provides a three-level approach to the planning process for the use of forest biomass: sub-regional (useful for the connections with the large scale energy planning), local (useful for the development of best practices for sustainable forest management), operating (useful for planning and management of the supply chain). The main results achieved by the project are: GIS applications for implementing the planning activities and for identifying the Biomass Districts; Decision Support Systems (DSS) to guide the competent public authorities in the choice of the best solutions to increase the sustainable production of biomass according with sustainability objectives established for protected areas; a methodology for evaluating threats and benefits deriving from biomass harvesting and extraction; the drawing up of a forest management plan at biomass district scale; the definition of a traceability system and quality standards for woody biomass in order to ensure the respect of the sustainability criteria necessary for the development of the biomass chain in protected areas. A set of specific indicators has been defined to evaluate the positive and negative impacts that the forestry interventions could have on the biotic, abiotic, and socio-economic components, in the short, medium and long period. The transferring activities, as well as the communicative ones, contributed to spread the know-how and the results gained during the project implementation not only at a local level but also at a regional and national level, in order to favor high levels of replicability all over the MED Programme cooperation area
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Species-specific shifts in diurnal sap velocity dynamics and hysteretic behavior of ecophysiological variables during the 2015â2016 el niño event in the amazon forest
Current climate change scenarios indicate warmer temperatures and the potential for more extreme droughts in the tropics, such that a mechanistic understanding of the water cycle from individual trees to landscapes is needed to adequately predict future changes in forest structure and function. In this study, we contrasted physiological responses of tropical trees during a normal dry season with the extreme dry season due to the 2015â2016 El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event. We quantified high resolution temporal dynamics of sap velocity (Vs), stomatal conductance (gs) and leaf water potential (ΚL) of multiple canopy trees, and their correlations with leaf temperature (Tleaf) and environmental conditions [direct solar radiation, air temperature (Tair) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD)]. The experiment leveraged canopy access towers to measure adjacent trees at the ZF2 and TapajĂłs tropical forest research (near the cities of Manaus and SantarĂ©m). The temporal difference between the peak of gs (late morning) and the peak of VPD (early afternoon) is one of the major regulators of sap velocity hysteresis patterns. Sap velocity displayed species-specific diurnal hysteresis patterns reflected by changes in Tleaf. In the morning, Tleaf and sap velocity displayed a sigmoidal relationship. In the afternoon, stomatal conductance declined as Tleaf approached a daily peak, allowing ΚL to begin recovery, while sap velocity declined with an exponential relationship with Tleaf. In Manaus, hysteresis indices of the variables Tleaf-Tair and ΚL-Tleaf were calculated for different species and a significant difference (p < 0.01, α = 0.05) was observed when the 2015 dry season (ENSO period) was compared with the 2017 dry season (âcontrol scenarioâ). In some days during the 2015 ENSO event, Tleaf approached 40°C for all studied species and the differences between Tleaf and Tair reached as high at 8°C (average difference: 1.65 ± 1.07°C). Generally, Tleaf was higher than Tair during the middle morning to early afternoon, and lower than Tair during the early morning, late afternoon and night. Our results support the hypothesis that partial stomatal closure allows for a recovery in ΚL during the afternoon period giving an observed counterclockwise hysteresis pattern between ΚL and Tleaf. © 2019 Gimenez, Jardine, Higuchi, NegrĂłn-JuĂĄrez, Sampaio-Filho, Cobello, Fontes, Dawson, Varadharajan, Christianson, Spanner, AraĂșjo, Warren, Newman, Holm, Koven, McDowell and Chambers