Building a local climate reference dataset: application to the Abruzzo region (Central Italy), 1930–2019

Reliable secular time series of essential climatic variables are a fundamental element for the assessment of vulnerability, impact and adaptation to climate change. Here, we implement a readily portable procedure for building an upgradable long‐term homogeneous climate dataset using monthly and daily observations of temperature and precipitation over a given area of interest, exemplified here with Abruzzo, a region in Central Italy characterized by complex orography. We process the dataset according to a preliminary ranking of stations based on data quantity and quality, and we exploit the Climatol algorithm for inhomogeneity correction. The corrected time series show trends in broad agreement with external databases (CRU, Berkeley Earth, E‐OBS), and highlight the importance of relying on a local network for a better representation of gradients and variability over the territory. We estimate that maximum (TX) and minimum temperature (TN) increased by ~1.6 and ~2.2°C/century, respectively, over the period 1930–2019, while in the recent decades 1980–2019 we found an accelerated trend of ~5.7 and ~3.9°C/century. Precipitation (RR) decreased by ~10%/century in 1930–2019, while it has been increasing at a rate of ~26%/century in 1980–2019. The Köppen–Geiger climate classification is sensitive to the increase of precipitation in the recent decades, which is attributable to decreased summer precipitation overcompensated by more rain in late spring and early autumn. The cold climate types are retreating upwards along the slopes of the mountain ranges. Over the period 1980–2019, extreme values are also displaying significant trends. Every 2 years, there is one less frost day (TN 25°C) in the Apennines area, while there is one more tropical night (TN >20°C) in the Adriatic coastal area. Precipitation extremes are increasing, especially along the coast, with rain accumulated in the rainiest days increasing at a rate of 1–2%/year

Experimental investigation on the characteristics of hydraulic jump in expanding channels with a water jet injection system

The high flow velocity downstream of weirs and gates can cause the destruction of erosive beds in rivers or even non-erosive channels. To reduce the flow's kinetic energy, structures are needed to consume this energy. Expansion basins are often used downstream of structures such as weirs, gates, and chutes to increase energy dissipation in hydraulic jumps. Various methods are used to stabilize asymmetric hydraulic jumps in abrupt expanding channels. In this study, the interaction of multiple submerged water jet injection systems with S-type hydraulic jump for stabilizing and stabilizing the hydraulic jump was investigated. The different configurations of the jet system were tested with Froude numbers 7.4, 8.7, and 9.5, and finally, three optimal configurations were selected as configurations 1, 2, and 3. In order to investigate the performance of the jet injection system under other hydraulic boundary conditions, flow velocities downstream of the jet system were measured for three optimal configurations with different depths of the tailwater. Comparison of the results of using a water jet injection system with S-type hydraulic jump showed that the energy and momentum correction coefficients in all different configurations were significantly reduced. The highest relative energy loss was observed in configuration 3, equal to 68.42%. The results showed a good performance of the jet injection system in stabilizing the asymmetric hydraulic jump S and reducing the length of the stilling basin

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

A note on the equivalence between certain equivalent and least expected penalization criteria

In this paper we face the problem of the uniqueness of the quadratic penalty func-tion. We show an elementary case where the equivalence between certain equivalent and least expected penalization criteria reached by means of a wider class than the quadratic one. The uniqueness is obtained only imposing a symmetry condition