Applied Hydrological Modeling with the Use of Geoinformatics: Theory and Practice

Water resource management and catchment analysis are crucial aspects of the twenty-first century in hydrological and environmental sciences. Linked directly with studies and research about climate change effects in global resources (e.g., diminution of rainfall dynamic), as well as continuously growing extreme natural phenomena with catastrophic results (e.g., floods and erosion), hydrological modeling has become a key priority in modern academic research goals. On a national or lower administrative level, the need for coping with natural disasters—affecting mainly human life, property, local economy, infrastructure, etc.—and the need to design management plans and projects for sustainable exploitation of natural resources set hydrological modeling in high demand by government organizations and local authorities. Thus, hazard assessment and risk evaluation modeling have become a strategic aim and an extremely useful tool for stakeholders, decision-makers, and scientific community

Διερεύνηση της Ψυχικής Ανθεκτικότητας και του Γενικευμένου Άγχους Εκπαιδευτικών την Περίοδο της Πανδημίας COVID-19

Στην παρούσα μελέτη εξετάζονται οι αντιλήψεις εκπαιδευτικών της πρωτοβάθμιας και δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης σε σχέση με τα επίπεδα της ψυχικής ανθεκτικότητας και του γενικευμένου άγχους εν μέσω της πανδημίας COVID-19. Αυτή η μελέτη αποτέλεσε μέρος ενός ευρύτερου προγράμματος του Εργαστηρίου Σχολικής Ψυχολογίας του Τμήματος Ψυχολογίας του Εθνικού Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών. Το δείγμα της έρευνας αποτέλεσαν 450 εκπαιδευτικοί, 183 από την πρωτοβάθμια και 267 από την δευτεροβάθμια εκπαίδευση. Οι εκπαιδευτικοί συμπλήρωσαν τόσο το ερωτηματολόγιο Σύντομη Κλίμακα Ανθεκτικότητας (Brief Resilience Scale - BRS) με στόχο την εκτίμηση των επιπέδων της ψυχικής ανθεκτικότητας, όσο και το ερωτηματολόγιο Κλίμακα Γενικευμένης Αγχώδους Διαταραχής (GAD-7) με στόχο την εκτίμηση των επιπέδων του γενικευμένου άγχους. Συγχρόνως, συμπληρώθηκε και ένα ερωτηματολόγιο δημογραφικών. Τα αποτελέσματα της μελέτης έδειξαν ότι οι εκπαιδευτικοί διατηρούν υψηλά επίπεδα ψυχικής ανθεκτικότητας και ήπιο έως μέτριο γενικευμένο άγχος. Βρέθηκε επίσης ότι οι γυναίκες εκπαιδευτικοί τείνουν να διατηρούν χαμηλότερα επίπεδα ψυχικής ανθεκτικότητας και υψηλότερα επίπεδα γενικευμένου άγχους σε σχέση με τους άνδρες εκπαιδευτικούς. Επιπροσθέτως, φαίνεται ότι, η ύπαρξη στο στενό περιβάλλον των εκπαιδευτικών κάποιου, ο οποίος έχει νοσήσει ή πεθάνει από SARS-CoV-2, σχετίζεται με υψηλότερα επίπεδα γενικευμένου άγχους. Τέλος, δεν παρατηρήθηκε κάποια διαφοροποίηση ανάλογα με την ηλικία, την ειδικότητα, την περιοχή του σχολείου και την οικογενειακή κατάσταση. Τα παραπάνω ευρήματα συμβάλλουν στη καλύτερη κατανόηση τυχόν δυσκολιών που μπορεί να αντιμετωπίζουν οι εκπαιδευτικοί κατά την διάρκεια της πανδημίας COVID-19 και στο σχεδιασμό αποτελεσματικότερων προγραμμάτων παρέμβασης και υποστήριξης.The aim of the present study is to investigate the perceptions of primary and secondary school teachers regarding the levels of mental resilience and generalized anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic. This study was carried out as part of a wider research program of the Laboratory of School Psychology, Department of Psychology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The sample consists of 450 teachers, 183 from primary and 267 from secondary education. Data collection was conducted by the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) questionnaire for assessing levels of mental resilience and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire for assessing levels of generalized anxiety disorder. Also demographic data were collected. Findings showed that teachers maintain high levels of mental resilience and mild to moderate generalized anxiety. It was also found that female teachers tend to maintain lower levels of mental resilience and higher levels of generalized anxiety than male teachers. In addition, the presence of someone close to teachers who has become ill or died of SARS-CoV-2 appears to associate with higher levels of generalized anxiety disorder. Lastly, age, scientific specialty, school area and marital status not found to significantly differentiate levels of mental resilience and generalized anxiety. The above findings may facilitate the understanding of any difficulties that teachers face during COVID-19 pandemic so as to design efficient interventions and support programs

Usefulness of Herpes Consensus PCR methodology to routine diagnostic testing for herpesviruses infections in clinical specimens

The purposes of the study were to assess the usefulness of simultaneously amplifying herpes simplex virus 1 and 2, varicella-zoster virus, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus and human herpesvirus 6 DNA in various clinical specimens and to analyze clinical events in patients presenting positive results. A total of 763 clinical samples obtained from 758 patients, including 115 cerebrospinal fluids, 102 aqueous fluids, 445 swabs from genital (152), oro-facial (138) and other (155) skin lesions, 96 eye swabs and 5 bronchoalveolar lavages, were tested by using the Consensus polymerase chain reaction methodology. The clinical files of the patients were consulted retrospectively. 171 of the 758 patients (22.5%) were positive for at least one of the six target viruses: herpes simplex virus 1 (n = 95), varicella-zoster virus (n = 40), herpes simplex virus 2 (n = 21), herpes simplex virus 1 plus herpes simplex virus 2 (n = 8), cytomegalovirus (n = 4), Epstein-Barr virus (n = 1), human herpesvirus 6 (n = 1), and herpes simplex virus 1 plus human herpesvirus 6 (n = 1). The Consensus methodology enabled the rapid and accurate detection of herpesviruses in various clinical specimens and provided a reliable tool in the diagnosis of herpetic infections

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for Evidence of the Type-III Seesaw Mechanism in Multilepton Final States in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia