The effect of cyclones crossing the Mediterranean region on sea level anomalies on the Mediterranean Sea coast

Abstract. Large positive and negative sea level anomalies on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea are linked to intensity and position of cyclones moving along the Mediterranean storm track with dynamics involving different factors. This analysis is based on a model hindcast and considers nine coastal stations, which are representative of sea level anomalies with different magnitudes and characteristics. When a shallow water fetch is present, the wind around the cyclone centre is the main cause of positive and negative sea level anomalies, depending on its onshore or offshore direction. The inverse barometer effect produces a positive anomaly on the coast near the cyclone pressure minimum and a negative anomaly at the opposite side of the Mediterranean Sea. The latter is caused by the cross-basin mean sea level pressure gradient that is associated with the presence of a cyclone. This often coincides with the presence of an anticyclone above the station, which causes a local negative inverse barometer effect. Further, at some stations, negative sea level anomalies are reinforced by a residual water mass redistribution within the basin, which is associated with a transient response to the atmospheric pressure forcing. Though the link with the presence of a cyclone in the Mediterranean has comparable importance for positive and negative anomalies, the relation between cyclone position and intensity is stronger for the magnitude of positive events. The area of cyclogenesis, track of the central minimum and position at the time of the event differ depending on the location the sea level anomaly occurs and on its sign. The western Mediterranean is the main cyclogenesis area for both positive and negative anomalies overall. Atlantic cyclones mainly produce positive sea level anomalies in the western basin. At the easternmost stations, positive anomalies are caused by cyclogenesis in the eastern Mediterranean. North African cyclogenesis is a major source of positive anomalies on the central African coast and negative anomalies on the eastern Mediterranean and northern Aegean coasts

Modeling, Simulation and Emulation of Intelligent Domotic Environments

Intelligent Domotic Environments are a promising approach, based on semantic models and commercially off-the-shelf domotic technologies, to realize new intelligent buildings, but such complexity requires innovative design methodologies and tools for ensuring correctness. Suitable simulation and emulation approaches and tools must be adopted to allow designers to experiment with their ideas and to incrementally verify designed policies in a scenario where the environment is partly emulated and partly composed of real devices. This paper describes a framework, which exploits UML2.0 state diagrams for automatic generation of device simulators from ontology-based descriptions of domotic environments. The DogSim simulator may simulate a complete building automation system in software, or may be integrated in the Dog Gateway, allowing partial simulation of virtual devices alongside with real devices. Experiments on a real home show that the approach is feasible and can easily address both simulation and emulation requirement

A review of potential physical impacts on harbours in the Mediterranean Sea under climate change

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-0972-9The potential impact of climate change on port operations and infrastructures has received much less attention than the corresponding impact for beach systems. However, ports have always been vulnerable to weather extremes and climate change could enhance such occurrences at timescales comparable to the design lifetime of harbour engineering structures. The analysis in this paper starts with the main climatic variables affecting harbour engineering and exploitation. It continues with a review of the available projections for such variables first at global scale and then at a regional scale (Catalan coast in the western Mediterranean) as a study case for similar environments in the planet. The detailed assessment of impacts starts from downscaled projections for mean sea level and wave storms (wind not considered in the paper). This is followed by an analysis of the port operations and infrastructure performance that are relevant from a climate perspective. The key climatic factors here considered are relative sea level, wave storm features (height, period, direction and duration) and their combined effect, which is expected to produce the highest impacts. The paper ends with a discussion and some examples of analyses aiming at port adaptation to future climate change.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Risultati del trattamento chirurgico del varicocele nella infertilità maschile

To evaluate the results of surgical treatment of varicocele on infertile men, especially regarding sperm count, 245 patients, surgically treated from 1993 to 2003, were evaluated. Patients underwent to ligature and section of the pampiniform plexus, throught the subinguinal approach and local anaesthesia. At the follow-up (3-6-12 months) an improvement of sperm count was relieved in 79.5% of patients and the incidence of complications and relapses was of 3.7% and 1.2%, respectively. The Authors stress the efficacy of surgical treatment of varicocele in male infertility and hold the subinguinal approach as an effective treatment, minimally invasive and low cost

Mistral and Tramontane wind systems in climate simulations from 1950 to 2100

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Mistral and Tramontane wind speed and wind direction patterns in regional climate simulations

International audienceThe Mistral and Tramontane are important wind phenomena that occur over southern France and the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Both winds travel through constricting valleys before flowing out towards the Mediterranean Sea. The Mistral and Tramontane are thus interesting phenomena, and represent an opportunity to study channeling effects, as well as the interactions between the atmosphere and land/ocean surfaces. This study investigates Mistral and Tramontane simulations using five regional climate models with grid spacing of about 50 km and smaller. All simulations are driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis data. Spatial patterns of surface wind, as well as wind development and error propagation along the wind tracks from inland France to offshore during Mistral and Tramontane events, are presented and discussed. To disentangle the results from large-scale error sources in Mistral and Tramontane simulations, only days with well simulated large-scale sea level pressure field patterns are evaluated. Comparisons with the observations show that the large-scale pressure patterns are well simulated by the considered models, but the orographic modifications to the wind systems are not well simulated by the coarse-grid simulations (with a grid spacing of about 50 km), and are reproduced slightly better by the higher resolution simulations. On days with Mistral and/or Tramontane events, most simulations underestimate (by 13 % on average) the wind speed over the Mediterranean Sea. This effect is strongest at the lateral borders of the main flow—the flow width is underestimated. All simulations of this study show a clockwise wind direction bias over the sea during Mistral and Tramontane events. Simulations with smaller grid spacing show smaller biases than their coarse-grid counterparts

Changes in protein expression in two cholangiocarcinoma cell lines undergoing formation of multicellular tumor spheroids In vitro

Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) is relevant in malignant growth and frequently correlates with worsening disease progression due to its implications in metastases and re- sistance to therapeutic interventions. Although EMT is known to occur in several types of solid tumors, the information concerning tumors arising from the epithelia of the bile tract is still limited. In order to approach the problem of EMT in cholangiocarcinoma, we decided to investigate the changes in protein expression occurring in two cell lines under conditions leading to growth as adherent monolayers or to formation of multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS), which are considered culture models that better mimic the growth characteristics of in-vivo solid tumors. In our system, changes in phenotypes occur with only a decrease in transmembrane E-cadherin and vimentin expression, minor changes in the transglutami- nase protein/activity but with significant differences in the proteome profiles, with declining and increasing expression in 6 and in 16 proteins identified by mass spectrometry. The aris- ing protein patterns were analyzed based on canonical pathways and network analysis. These results suggest that significant metabolic rearrangements occur during the conver- sion of cholangiocarcinomas cells to the MCTS phenotype, which most likely affect the car- bohydrate metabolism, protein folding, cytoskeletal activity, and tissue sensitivity to oxygen

Memories and Future. Storia e sviluppi di un gruppo di ricerca italiano: dagli studi di efficacia alle analisi delle resistenze al cambiamento

L'obiettivo di questo articolo è di riassumere brevemente come si sia formato e sviluppato il nostro gruppo di ricerca e quali indirizzi di ricerca abbia preso nel corso degli anni. Tale fine risponde all'esigenza condivisa di una maggiore collaborazione e integrazione tra i vari gruppi che si sviluppi anche al di fuori dei contatti stimolanti, ma purtroppo sporadici, che avvengono ai congressi, sia nazionali che internazionali, in modo da aprire eventuali nuove strade di condivisione di percorsi di ricerca comune. Siamo convinti che la conoscenza reciproca sia la "via maestra" alla costruzione di nuovi progetti e alla realizzazione di quelle conoscenze scientifiche per cui la nostra Società è nata

Modelling of future extreme storm surges at the NW Mediterranean coast (Spain)

Storm surges are one of the main drivers for extreme flooding at the coastal areas. Such events can be characterized with the maximum level in an extreme storm surge event (surge peak), as well as the duration of the event. Surge projections come from a barotropic model for the 1950–2100 period, under a severe climate change scenario (RCP 8.5) at the northeastern Spanish coast. The relationship of extreme storm surges to three large-scale climate patterns was assessed: North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), East Atlantic Pattern (EAWR), and Scandinavian Pattern (SC). The statistical model was built using two different strategies. In Strategy #1, the joint probability density was characterized by a moving-average series of stationary Archimedean copula, whereas in Strategy #2, the joint probability density was characterized by a non-stationary probit copula. The parameters of the marginal distribution and the copula were defined with generalized additive models. The analysis showed that the mean values of surge peak and event duration were constant and were independent of the proposed climate patterns. However, the values of NAO and SC influenced the threshold and the storminess of extreme events. According to Strategy #1, the variance of the surge peak and event duration increased with a fast shift of negative SC and a positive NAO, respectively. Alternatively, Strategy #2 showed that the variance of the surge peak increased with a positive EAWR. Both strategies coincided in that the joint dependence of the maximum surge level and the duration of extreme surges ranged from low to medium degree. Its mean value was stationary, and its variability was linked to the geographical location. Finally, Strategy #2 helped determine that this dependence increased with negative NAO.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version