Rappresentare l’armatura culturale del territorio con QGIS: l’esperienza del PTRA della Franciacorta

Landscape features are the result of interrelated actions of man-and-nature and can provide ecosystem services that need to be protected. Since urban planning policies can impact negatively on the conservation of cultural ecosystem services, urban plans must map them and make provision for their protection. For the Plan of Franciacorta (22 municipalities in Lombardy), we chose QGIS to set up a geo-database and map cultural heritage information. QGIS can provide more flexibility than a typical map, thanks to its graphics tools. To plan the development of actions to protect the landscape and suggest a range of planning opportunities for municipalities, an integrated representation of the landscape and protected ecological elements can highlight some critical issues: municipal borders can prove an obstacle in the implementation of supra-municipal projects and protected areas can include enclaves potentially vulnerable to urban pressures. Such maps have proved useful in guiding the planning choices in the development of the landscape protection schemes. The geo-location of critical aspects has brought out a range of inter-municipal planning opportunities

Knowledge Driven Behavioural Analysis in Process Intelligence

InthispaperweillustratehowtheknowledgedrivenBehaviourAnal- ysis, which has been used in the KITE.it process management framework, can support the evolution of analytics from descriptive to predictive. We describe how the methodology uses an iterative three-step process: first the descriptive knowledge is collected, querying the knowledge base, then the prescriptive and predictive knowledge phases allow us to evaluate business rules and objectives, extract unexpected business patterns, and screen exceptions. The procedure is iterative since this novel knowledge drives the definition of new descriptive an- alytics that can be combined with business rules and objectives to increase our level of knowledge on the combination between process behaviour and contex- tual information

In Cardiac Patients β-Blockers Attenuate the Decrease in Work Rate during Exercise at a Constant Submaximal Heart Rate

Purpose Exercise prescription based on fixed heart rate (HR) values is not associated with a specific work rate (WR) during prolonged exercise. This phenomenon has never been evaluated in cardiac patients and might be associated with a slow component of HR kinetics and β-adrenergic activity. The aims were to quantify, in cardiac patients, the WR decrease at a fixed HR and to test if it would be attenuated by β-blockers. Methods Seventeen patients with coronary artery disease in stable conditions (69 ± 9 yr) were divided into two groups according to the presence (BB) or absence (no-BB) of a therapy with β-blockers, and performed on a cycle ergometer: An incremental exercise (INCR) and a 15-min "HRCLAMPED"exercise, in which WR was continuously adjusted to maintain a constant HR, corresponding to the gas exchange threshold +15%. HR was determined by the ECG signal, and pulmonary gas exchange was assessed breath-by-breath. Results During INCR, HRpeak was lower in BB versus no-BB (P < 0.05), whereas no differences were observed for other variables. During HRCLAMPED, the decrease in WR needed to maintain HR constant was less pronounced in BB versus no-BB (-16% ± 10% vs -27 ± 10, P = 0.04) and was accompanied by a decreased VO2 only in no-BB (-13% ± 6%, P < 0.001). Conclusions The decrease in WR during a 15-min exercise at a fixed HR (slightly higher than that at gas exchange threshold) was attenuated in BB, suggesting a potential role by β-adrenergic stimulation. The phenomenon may represent, also in this population, a sign of impaired exercise tolerance and interferes with aerobic exercise prescription

Shared Histories of Co-evolution May Affect Trophic Interactions in a Freshwater Community Dominated by Alien Species

Interactions occurring between species in multiple invaded freshwater ecosystems are often difficult to observe and study. Studies on invasive alien species typically focus on single species, and, when the species community is exclusively composed of alien species, their interactions, eventual facilitation and hindering processes are very scarcely assessed. To investigate such a community, the species community in the Arno River (Tuscany, Italy) was examined as a model system using the combined approach of stable isotopes and dietary analyses. Established alien species have formed a pyramid shaped community with the European catfish Silurus glanis and the North American channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus in the apex position, followed by opportunistic predatory (Lepomis gibbosus) and omnivore (Alburnus alburnus, Cyprinus carpio, Barbus barbus, Pseudorasbora parva, Padogobius sp., Tinca tinca) species. These species were observed to feed on a variety of primary producers (Myriophyllum sp., Potamogeton sp., Phragmites australis) and consumers (aquatic insects, molluscs, Dikerogammarus villosus, Procambarus clarkii, Palaemon antennarius, tadpoles). Remarkably, the channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus showed an ontogenetic niche shift, with juveniles occupying a slightly higher trophic position than mature individuals. Pseudorasbora parva and A. alburnus showed a strong niche overlap, with the former having a wider niche. Such wide niches were also found for the invasive crustaceans D. villosus and P. clarkii. Outgoing from our findings, we suggest that life-history and geographic origin play a role in determining competition and interaction type among alien species, with species from the same geographic area showing a lower potential to compete than species from different areas, hence affecting their potential impact on native species

A Neuro-Evolutionary Approach to Electrocardiographic Signal Classification

International audienceThis chapter presents an evolutionary Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) classifier system as a heartbeat classification algorithm designed according to the rules of the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2011 (Moody, Comput Cardiol Challenge 38:273-276, 2011), whose aim is to develop an efficient algorithm able to run within a mobile phone that can provide useful feedback when acquiring a diagnostically useful 12-lead Electrocardiography (ECG) recording. The method used to solve this problem is a very powerful natural computing analysis tool, namely evolutionary neural networks, based on the joint evolution of the topology and the connection weights relying on a novel similarity-based crossover. The chapter focuses on discerning between usable and unusable electrocardiograms tele-medically acquired from mobile embedded devices. A preprocessing algorithm based on the Discrete Fourier Transform has been applied before the evolutionary approach in order to extract an ECG feature dataset in the frequency domain. Finally, a series of tests has been carried out in order to evaluate the performance and the accuracy of the classifier system for such a challenge

Predicting candidemia in internal medicine departments: are we chasing the Holy Grail?

Candidemia is a challenging clinical condition with high rates of morbidity and mortality.1 Key requirements for its prompt management include early identification and timely initiation of appropriate systemic antifungal therapy, consistently reported as a major determinant of survival. However, the diagnosis of candidemia can be challenging and is often delayed as there are no specific clinical signs, blood cultures have low sensitivity, and detection of fungal blood cultures takes a long time. In addition, there is evidence that a significant percentage of such infections occurs in patients admitted to internal medicine departments. This is not particularly surprising given the advanced age of many inpatients at internal medicine departments and multiple complex comorbidities. Moreover, related therapies and healthcare system contacts often involve the use of central venous catheters and other indwelling devices, potentially entailing high risk of candidemia.2 Therefore, optimization of the diagnostic and therapeutic approach is an important and still unfulfilled need for the management of candidemia in internal medicine department

SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine Response in People Living with HIV According to CD4 Count and CD4/CD8 Ratio

Background: Our aim was to estimate the rates of not achieving a robust/above-average humoral response to the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in people living with HIV (PLWH) who received ≥2 doses and to investigate the role of the CD4 and CD4/CD8 ratio in predicting the humoral response. Methods: We evaluated the humoral anti-SARS-CoV-2 response 1-month after the second and third doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine as a proportion of not achieving a robust/above-average response using two criteria: (i) a humoral threshold identified as a correlate of protection against SARS-CoV-2 ( 200 cells/mm3 and a ratio > 0.6. Conclusions: A robust humoral response after a booster dose has not been reached by 50% of PLWH with CD4 < 200 cells mm3. In the absence of a validated correlate of protections in the Omicron era, the CD4 count remains the most solid marker to guide vaccination campaigns in PLWH