Spatial-spectral flexible optical networking:enabling switching solutions for a simplified and efficient SDM network platform

The traffic carried by core optical networks grows at a steady but remarkable pace of 30-40% year-over-year. Optical transmissions and networking advancements continue to satisfy the traffic requirements by delivering the content over the network infrastructure in a cost and energy efficient manner. Such core optical networks serve the information traffic demands in a dynamic way, in response to requirements for shifting of traffics demands, both temporally (day/night) and spatially (business district/residential). However as we are approaching fundamental spectral efficiency limits of singlemode fibers, the scientific community is pursuing recently the development of an innovative, all-optical network architecture introducing the spatial degree of freedom when designing/operating future transport networks. Spacedivision- multiplexing through the use of bundled single mode fibers, and/or multi-core fibers and/or few-mode fibers can offer up to 100-fold capacity increase in future optical networks. The EU INSPACE project is working on the development of a complete spatial-spectral flexible optical networking solution, offering the network ultra-high capacity, flexibility and energy efficiency required to meet the challenges of delivering exponentially growing traffic demands in the internet over the next twenty years. In this paper we will present the motivation and main research activities of the INSPACE consortium towards the realization of the overall project solution

Using modeling tools for implementing feasible land use and nature conservation governance systems in small islands e The Pico Island (Azores) case-study

The present study deals with the development of systematic conservation planning as management instrument in small oceanic islands, ensuring open systems of governance, and able to integrate an informed and involved participation of the stakeholders. Marxan software was used to define management areas according a set of alternative land use scenarios considering different conservation and management paradigms. Modeled conservation zones were interpreted and compared with the existing protected areas allowing more fused information for future trade-outs and stakeholder's involvement. The results, allowing the identification of Target Management Units (TMU) based on the consideration of different development scenarios proved to be consistent with a feasible development of evaluation approaches able to support sound governance systems. Moreover, the detailed geographic identification of TMU seems to be able to support participated policies towards a more sustainable management of the entire islan

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

7th Drug hypersensitivity meeting: part two

No abstract availabl

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

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

Modelling sea level driven change of Macaronesian archipelago configurations since 120 kyr BP

The MacArthur and Wilson island biogeography theory relates species diversity on islands as the result of equilibrium between extinctions and colonization events which rates depend on island size and isolation. Although island size and isolation can be considered static on ecological timescales (<100 years) they are not static on longer time scales. Since the last million years sea levels fluctuate with a period of ca. 120 kyr between -120 m and up to +10 m MSL (Mean Sea Level). Due to these sea level changes islands have changed in size and ultimately may have drowned or emerged. The rate and degree of their drowning depends on island morphometry and the shape of the sea level change curve. We explore the effects of global sea level cycles on the configuration of archipelagos and volcanic islands of Macaronesia. The results indicate that the islands changed shape considerably during the last 120 kyr. Notably the period between 80 kyr and 15 kyr ago sea levels were at least 80 m lower than present and several islands now isolated were merged or were much larger than present. Recent shrinking of islands due to the sea level rise since the last glacial maximum period (20 kyr BP) led to more than 50% reductions in island size, significant loss of coastal habitat and a significant increase in isolation by the increase of distances between islands and island and continents. Island size reduction must have induced pressures especially on terrestrial insular ecosystems, inducing upward migrations and interspecies competitions, and probable extinctions. The splitting of merged islands must have led to separations of populations leading to gene flow losses for some biota. Present day islands are not representative for the mean island configurations during the last Myr but rather represent an anomaly. Islands at present are smallest and most isolated and this configuration makes the insular biota even more vulnerable to human impact

SDN Orchestration of OpenFlow and GMPLS Flexi-grid Networks with a Stateful Hierarchical PCE

New and emerging use cases, such as the interconnection of geographically remote data centers, are drawing attention to the need for provisioning end-to-end connectivity services spanning multiple and heterogeneous network domains. This heterogeneity is due not only to the data transmission and switching technology (the so-called data plane) but also to the deployed control plane, which may be used within each domain to automate the setup and recovery of such services, dynamically. The choice of a control plane is affected by factors such as availability, maturity, operator’s preference, and the ability to satisfy a list of functional requirements. Given the current developments around OpenFlow and software-defined networking (SDN) along with the need to account for existing deployments based on GMPLS, the problem of heterogeneous control plane interworking needs to be solved. The retained solution must equally address the specific issues of multidomain networks, such as limited domain topology visibility, given the scalability and confidentiality constraints that characterize them. In this setting, we propose a functional and protocol architecture for such interworking, based on the key concepts of network abstraction and overarching control, implemented in terms of a hierarchical stateful path computation element (PCE), which provides the orchestration and coordination layer. In the proposed architecture, the PCEP and BGP-LS protocols are extended to support OpenFlow addresses and datapath identifiers, unifying both GMPLS and OpenFlow domains. The solution is deployed in an experimental testbed and validated. Although the main scope of the approach is the interworking of OpenFlow and GMPLS, the same approach can be directly applied to a wide range of multidomain scenarios, with either homogeneous or heterogeneous control technologies

Insular environmental change; climate-forced and system-driven

Vegetation dynamics since the last glacial maximum in small oceanic islands and in continental settings are compared. We selected the islands of Minorca (Western Mediterranean), Tenerife (Eastern Atlantic), the Azores (Central Atlantic) and Mauritius (Indian Ocean) and compared pollen-based dynamics with selected continental areas of southern Italy, the Atlas mountains, northwest Africa, and the East African mountains. We identified potential areas where plant diversity is conserved during unfavourable periods serving as refugial areas. Most pollen records from small oceanic islands with a low topography show, as far as the pollen records reach, stable forest compositions suggesting floral diversity is lodged within a mosaic-like structure. In mountainous islands data point to an altitudinal distribution of plant diversity and to altitudinal migration of plants as a response to climate change. In Mauritius we registered at 11.4 cal. ka a climate-forced change in forest composition which triggered a cascade of species turnover events considered as system-driven. In the small islands discussed we identified areas with a high potential to provide on a long-term shelter to insular floral diversity, thus serving as a refugium: 1) gallery forest located along the drainage system (topography constrained), 2) cloud forest located at the elevation where atmospheric moisture condensates and cloud formation takes place (sea surface temperature and atmospheric lapse rate constrained), 3) and deeply incised valleys, connecting diversity between all available elevations, where relatively humid conditions prevail such as the barrancos in Tenerife and the deeply incised valleys in Mauritius (geomorphology and sea-level constrained)