53 research outputs found
The mediterranean sea we want
open58siThis paper presents major gaps and challenges for implementing the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) in the Mediterranean region. The authors make recommendations on the scientific knowledge needs and co-design actions identified during two consultations, part of the Decade preparatory-phase, framing them in the Mediterranean Sea’s unique environmental and socio-economic perspectives. According to the ‘Mediterranean State of the Environment and Development Report 2020’ by the United Nations Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan and despite notable progress, the Mediterranean region is not on track to achieve and fully implement the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030. Key factors are the cumulative effect of multiple human-induced pressures that threaten the ecosystem resources and services in the global change scenario. The basin, identified as a climate change vulnerability hotspot, is exposed to pollution and rising impacts of climate change. This affects mainly the coastal zones, at increasing risk of extreme events and their negative effects of unsustainable management of key economic assets. Transitioning to a sustainable blue economy is the key for the marine environment’s health and the nourishment of future generations. This challenging context, offering the opportunity of enhancing the knowledge to define science-based measures as well as narrowing the gaps between the Northen and Southern shores, calls for a joint (re)action. The paper reviews the state of the art of Mediterranean Sea science knowledge, sets of trends, capacity development needs, specific challenges, and recommendations for each Decade’s societal outcome. In the conclusions, the proposal for a Mediterranean regional programme in the framework of the Ocean Decade is addressed. The core objective relies on integrating and improving the existing ocean-knowledge, Ocean Literacy, and ocean observing capacities building on international cooperation to reach the “Mediterranean Sea that we want”.openCappelletto M.; Santoleri R.; Evangelista L.; Galgani F.; Garces E.; Giorgetti A.; Fava F.; Herut B.; Hilmi K.; Kholeif S.; Lorito S.; Sammari C.; Lianos M.C.; Celussi M.; D'alelio D.; Francocci F.; Giorgi G.; Canu D.M.; Organelli E.; Pomaro A.; Sannino G.; Segou M.; Simoncelli S.; Babeyko A.; Barbanti A.; Chang-Seng D.; Cardin V.; Casotti R.; Drago A.; Asmi S.E.; Eparkhina D.; Fichaut M.; Hema T.; Procaccini G.; Santoro F.; Scoullos M.; Solidoro C.; Trincardi F.; Tunesi L.; Umgiesser G.; Zingone A.; Ballerini T.; Chaffai A.; Coppini G.; Gruber S.; Knezevic J.; Leone G.; Penca J.; Pinardi N.; Petihakis G.; Rio M.-H.; Said M.; Siokouros Z.; Srour A.; Snoussi M.; Tintore J.; Vassilopoulou V.; Zavatarelli M.Cappelletto M.; Santoleri R.; Evangelista L.; Galgani F.; Garces E.; Giorgetti A.; Fava F.; Herut B.; Hilmi K.; Kholeif S.; Lorito S.; Sammari C.; Lianos M.C.; Celussi M.; D'alelio D.; Francocci F.; Giorgi G.; Canu D.M.; Organelli E.; Pomaro A.; Sannino G.; Segou M.; Simoncelli S.; Babeyko A.; Barbanti A.; Chang-Seng D.; Cardin V.; Casotti R.; Drago A.; Asmi S.E.; Eparkhina D.; Fichaut M.; Hema T.; Procaccini G.; Santoro F.; Scoullos M.; Solidoro C.; Trincardi F.; Tunesi L.; Umgiesser G.; Zingone A.; Ballerini T.; Chaffai A.; Coppini G.; Gruber S.; Knezevic J.; Leone G.; Penca J.; Pinardi N.; Petihakis G.; Rio M.-H.; Said M.; Siokouros Z.; Srour A.; Snoussi M.; Tintore J.; Vassilopoulou V.; Zavatarelli M
Monitoraggio integrato di un'area marino-costiera: la foce del fiume Volturno (Mar Tirreno centrale)
Vengono presentati i risultati dell’attività di monitoraggio svolta nel corso del progetto PONa3_00363 I-AMICA (Infrastruttura di Alta tecnologia per il Monitoraggio Integrato Climatico-Ambientale; www.i-amica.it/i-amica/), nell’ambito delle attività relative all’Obiettivo Realizzativo 4.4 (Processi di interfaccia biosfera-idrosfera e funzionalità degli ecosistemi costieri). L’attività, che ha avuto come scopo l’acquisizione di conoscenze avanzate sulle dinamiche e/o variazioni nel tempo degli ecosistemi marino-costieri in relazione ai processi fisici, chimici e biologici che caratterizzano il loro habitat, si è sviluppata attraverso la sperimentazione di nuove metodologie di monitoraggio in relazione alle specifiche caratteristiche dell’area marino-costiera prospiciente la foce del fiume Volturno (Golfo di Gaeta). In particolare, oltre che sulle tecniche di monitoraggio classiche, lo studio si è principalmente focalizzato sulla acquisizione ed interpretazione di dati ambientali sia in colonna d’acqua che nei sedimenti a fondo mare e sulla identificazione di specie e/o associazioni di specie significative (bio-indicatori) da un punto di vista ambientale ed indicative dello stato di salute del sistema costiero. Poiché il sistema costiero rappresenta una struttura naturale complessa e delicata, la cui evoluzione è il risultato di delicati equilibri fisici, chimici e biologici, fortemente condizionabili dagli interventi antropici, l’attività di monitoraggio è stata integrata da studi sulla variazione della linea di costa, da studi sismostratigrafici della piana deltizia, sedimentologici e morfo-batimetrici dei fondali.Published1-714A. Oceanografia e climaJCR Journa
AIRO Breast Cancer Group Best Clinical Practice 2022 Update
Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common tumor in women and represents the leading cause of cancer death. Radiation therapy plays a key-role in the treatment of all breast cancer stages. Therefore, the adoption of evidence-based treatments is warranted, to ensure equity of access and standardization of care in clinical practice.Method: This national document on the highest evidence-based available data was developed and endorsed by the Italian Association of Radiation and Clinical Oncology (AIRO) Breast Cancer Group.We analyzed literature data regarding breast radiation therapy, using the SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) methodology (www.sign.ac.uk). Updated findings from the literature were examined, including the highest levels of evidence (meta-analyses, randomized trials, and international guidelines) with a significant impact on clinical practice. The document deals with the role of radiation therapy in the treatment of primary breast cancer, local relapse, and metastatic disease, with focus on diagnosis, staging, local and systemic therapies, and follow up. Information is given on indications, techniques, total doses, and fractionations.Results: An extensive literature review from 2013 to 2021 was performed. The work was organized according to a general index of different topics and most chapters included individual questions and, when possible, synoptic and summary tables. Indications for radiation therapy in breast cancer were examined and integrated with other oncological treatments. A total of 50 questions were analyzed and answered.Four large areas of interest were investigated: (1) general strategy (multidisciplinary approach, contraindications, preliminary assessments, staging and management of patients with electronic devices); (2) systemic therapy (primary, adjuvant, in metastatic setting); (3) clinical aspects (invasive, non-invasive and micro-invasive carcinoma; particular situations such as young and elderly patients, breast cancer in males and cancer during pregnancy; follow up with possible acute and late toxicities; loco-regional relapse and metastatic disease); (4) technical aspects (radiation after conservative surgery or mastectomy, indications for boost, lymph node radiotherapy and partial breast irradiation).Appendixes about tumor bed boost and breast and lymph nodes contouring were implemented, including a dedicated web application. The scientific work was reviewed and validated by an expert group of breast cancer key-opinion leaders.Conclusions: Optimal breast cancer management requires a multidisciplinary approach sharing therapeutic strategies with the other involved specialists and the patient, within a coordinated and dedicated clinical path. In recent years, the high-level quality radiation therapy has shown a significant impact on local control and survival of breast cancer patients. Therefore, it is necessary to offer and guarantee accurate treatments according to the best standards of evidence-based medicine
A Critical Review of the MASW Technique for Site Investigation in Geotechnical Enigeering
The dispersion curves of surface waves have been successfully used for the characterization of the shallow subsurface for decades. Three steps are involved in utilizing dispersion curves of surface waves for imaging geological profiles: 1. implemented the experimental procedure, 2. create efficient and accurate algorithms organized in a basic data processing sequence designed to extract surface wave dispersion curves from accelerometric records, and 3. develop stable and efficient multimodal inversion algorithms to obtain shear wave velocity profiles. This dissertation focuses on the third step, the inversion of the dispersion curves of surface waves, with the aim of searching the best procedure to get a more accurate and reliable estimate of the geological material properties. The inversion actually is comprised of two sub-steps: 3a) estimate a model employing the theory of surface wave propagation and mathematical optimization; 3b) appraise the model for its accuracy, either deterministically or statistically. One of the major goals of this study is to find the shallow S-wave velocity structure that explains the observed dispersion curves of surface waves. This is achieved by a multimodal inversion that involves the minimization of the cost/objective function that characterizes the differences between observed and calculated dispersion data. Due to discrete nature of inversion problems, the model obtained from the inversion of the data is therefore not necessarily equal to the true model that one seeks. This implies that for realistic problems inversion really consists of model estimation followed by model appraisal. General speaking, there are three catalogs of inversion techniques based on the internal physical principle of the geotechnical problems: linear inversions, non-linear inversions, and trial and error methods. It is common to present the inverted Vs profile as a unique profile without showing a range of possible solutions or some type of error bars, such as the standard deviations of the Vs values of each layer. Additionally, the person performing the inversion usually assumes the prior information required to constrain the problem based on his or her own judgment. Implementing an inversion method that includes estimates of the standard deviations of the Vs profile and finding tools to choose the prior information objectively were the main purposes of this research. To perform SASW inversion, one global and one local search procedures were presented and employed with synthetic data: a pure Monte Carlo method. The synthetic data was produced with a forward algorithm used during inversion. This implies that all uncertainties are caused by the nature of the MASW inversion problem alone since there are no uncertainties added by experimental errors in data collection, analysis of the data to create the dispersion curve, layered model to represent a real 3-D soil stratification, or wave propagation theory. The pure Monte Carlo method was chosen to study the non-uniqueness of the problem by looking at a range of acceptable solutions (i.e., Vs profiles) obtained with as few constraints as possible. It is important to note that this method requires large amounts of time to obtain Vs profiles with low rms error. Based on the variety of shapes found for Vs profiles with satisfactory rms, the non-uniqueness of SASW inversion was evident, concluding that the dispersion curve does not constrain the solution sufficiently to determine a unique Vs profile or to resolve specific velocity contrasts between layers. A summary of the reasons for this factor : 1. Characteristics related to the experimental dispersion curve: 2. Number and distribution of data points describing the experimental dispersion curve 3. Uncertainties of the experimental dispersion data 4. Characteristics related to the initial shear wave velocity profile 5. Depths and thicknesses of the layers 6. Depth to half-space 7. Initial shear wave velocities The points that represent the dispersion characteristics of a site needs to be selected carefully to have: (i) sufficient data to include all important features of the dispersion curve, and (ii) a good balance of information content to resolve the Vs of the layers based on similar amounts of information and have a fairly weighted rms error that gives a good measure of the fit between theoretical and experimental data. Therefore, using a multimodal inversion algorithms can reduce the non-uniqueness of the SASW inversion, allowing to use all the information contained in the experimental dispersion curve. To improve the interpretation step of the MASW experimental procedures, it is focused the attention of the dispersion behaviour of Rayleigh wave in complex startigraphic condition. It is analysed the influence of subsoil structure on the experimental data and the error introduced in the inversion step, assuming a one-dimensional soil stratification. Two dimensional numerical models are developed to investigate the behaviour of Rayleigh waves in the presence of lateral anomalies: slope interface between the layers. Different geometrical configuration are analyzed to take account also the influence of the source, relating to the immersion of the layers. The results show a clear influence of the subsurface structure, that can induce to a underestimation of the correct thickness layer of the soil profile investigated. To overcome this limitation a new approach is proposed to correct the dispersion curve with adequate factor before the inversion problem
The role of site effects and near-source seismic actions on ground and buildings response across the Aterno river valley (Italy).
Site response analysis for microzonation: a comparison of different numerical approaches and amplification factors.
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