Emergent realities for social wellbeing : environmental, spatial and social pathways

One of the most significant effects of urbanisation is the increase in impervious surface cover which reduces infiltration and increases runoff volume. Effective management of urban storm water runoff and water quality issues can only be accomplished once drainage area and flow networks are accurately identified (Parece and Campbell, 2014). Water resources cannot be properly managed unless their spatial distribution is known, in terms of quantity and quality, and how these variables are dependent on the parameters of periodic events, such as the intensity and duration of storms. Data from hydrological networks are used by public and private sectors for various applications, including planning of water management systems, the preparation and distribution of flood forecasts and warning systems, and the design of spillways, bridges and culverts (Stewart, 2015).peer-reviewe

Beyond national minimum standards : a comparison of the traditional HCB and the AB thermablock

Since the launch of the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) Directive by the EU Commission, and Malta’s membership in the EU in 2004, a number of seminars have been organized in Malta for professionals working in the building industry to raise awareness on the transposition of the EU Directive into National Law, as implemented through Malta’s latest building regulations, Part F. Aware of the ever-increasing demand for energy-efficiency in Malta, one established high-quality manufacturer and building contractor in Malta, Attard Brothers Group, have launched a new product in the building industry. This is an innovative building block for external walls combining two concrete skins and insulation en suite. Hence the name of the new product, the Thermablock. Its thermal performance is almost double the required standards.Bajada New Energy Ltd., CD Power Saving Co. Ltd., Energy Investment Co. Ltd., Solar Engineering Ltd. & Solar Solutions Ltd.peer-reviewe

Beyond national minimum standards : a comparison of the traditional HCB and the AB thermablock

Since the launch of the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) Directive by the EU Commission, and Malta’s membership in the EU in 2004, a number of seminars have been organized in Malta for professionals working in the building industry to raise awareness on the transposition of the EU Directive into National Law, as implemented through Malta’s latest building regulations, Part F. Aware of the ever-increasing demand for energy-efficiency in Malta, one established high-quality manufacturer and building contractor in Malta, Attard Brothers Group, have launched a new product in the building industry. This is an innovative building block for external walls combining two concrete skins and insulation en suite. Hence the name of the new product, the Thermablock. Its thermal performance is almost double the required standards.Bajada New Energy Ltd., CD Power Saving Co. Ltd., Energy Investment Co. Ltd., Solar Engineering Ltd. & Solar Solutions Ltd.peer-reviewe

Potential Sea Level Rise Inundation in the Mediterranean: From Susceptibility Assessment to Risk Scenarios for Policy Action

Coastal ecosystems and anthropic activities are prone to be affected by the negative impact of marine-related processes induced by climate change, such as erosion, flooding and permanent inundation. Studies aiming at defining potential risk scenarios represent a valuable tool for the identification of the most suitable coastal adaptation measures. After outlining sea level rise implications at the Mediterranean scale, this paper deals with inundation risk scenarios for the years 2050 and 2100 for the north-eastern sector of the Island of Gozo (Malta), central Mediterranean Sea. The analysis, carried out by applying an index-based procedure, firstly required the evaluation of the susceptibility to inundation of the investigated coastal stretch under different sea level projections. Then, the spatial combination of inundation susceptibility with the exposure and vulnerability of the area allowed identification of the most critical sectors in terms of coastal risk. The results of the analysis showed that, under the worst-case climate scenarios, 5.5% and 8.1% of the investigated coastal sector are prone to very high inundation risk (Class R4) in 2050 and 2100, respectively. In particular, the bays of Ramla and Marsalforn, which are characterized by significant economic and touristic activities, were found to be the sites where the expected impacts of future sea level rise will be higher if no management strategy and adaptation action are taken in the near future

Pre‑operative pain sensitivity : a prediction of post‑operative outcome in the obstetric population

Context: Experimental assessments can determine pain threshold and tolerance, which mirror sensitivity to pain. This, in turn, influences the post‑operative experience. Aims: The study intended to evaluate whether the pre‑operative pressure and electrical pain tests can predict pain and opioid requirement following cesarean delivery. Settings and Design: Research was conducted on females scheduled for cesarean section at a tertiary care hospital of the state. Twenty women were enrolled, after obtaining written informed consent. Materials and Methods: Pain assessment was performed on the eve of cesarean sections using three devices: PainMatcher® determined electrical pain threshold while the algometers PainTest™ FPN100 (manual) and PainTest™ FPX 25 (digital) evaluated pressure pain threshold and tolerance. Post‑operative pain relief included intravenous morphine administered by patient‑controlled analgesia, diclofenac (100 mg, every 12 h, rectally, enforced) and paracetamol (1000 mg, every 4‑6 h, orally, on patient request). Pain scores were reported on numerical rating scales at specified time intervals. Statistical Analysis Used: Correlational and regression statistics were computed using IBM SPSS Statistics 21 software (IBM Corporation, USA). Results: A significant correlation was observed between morphine requirement and: (1) electrical pain threshold (r = –0.45, P = 0.025), (2) pressure pain threshold (r = –0.41 P = 0.036) and (3) pressure pain tolerance (r = –0.44, P = 0.026) measured by the digital algometer. The parsimonious regression model for morphine requirement consisted of electrical pain threshold (r2 = 0.20, P = 0.049). The dose of morphine consumed within 48 h of surgery decreases by 0.9 mg for every unit increment in electrical pain threshold. Conclusions: The predictive power of pain sensitivity assessments, particularly electrical pain threshold, may portend post‑cesarean outcomes, including opioid requirements.peer-reviewe

Is small really beautiful? The impact of scale on political institutional capacity for integrated environmental management in Malta

Malta is a small self-governing parliamentary democracy, with contiguous biophysical and political boundaries fitting into the description of a bioregion, where the small-is-beautiful claim is expected to hold true. However, the country's development of integrated environmental management (IEM) capacity has encountered major challenges. Specific environmental problems have remained unchecked for decades, with the island remaining a late-comer in the implementation of environmental policy, when compared to other large countries. The literature offers tenable arguments about the potential advantages of small scale to IEM, and warns of the impediments to it in large, centrally co-ordinated political systems. But it does not explain the contradiction about these challenges to IEM in the context of small-scale contemporary democratic political structures. To strengthen our understanding of IEM capacity and the impact of scale on it, this thesis investigates the question 'what is the impact of small scale on the political-institutional capacity for IEM?' The research was conducted by identifying conceptual shortcomings in the literature; developing the concept of political institutional capacity for IEM, and, also a framework for assessing its level. The thesis focuses on the role of 'agency', rather than on impediments to IEM - a focus commonly found in the literature. This study investigated, in particular, how small scale affects the relative importance of different actors, domestic or international, in changing the IEM capacity levels of political institutional structures. The argument of the thesis is tested in the Maltese context. Here, the empirical analysis used three case studies - land-use, waste management and bird protection - to focus on policy responses that typify three important dimensions to environmental concerns - resource-use, social (quality of life) and ecological. On the basis of Malta's assessment, this study demonstrates that small scale does not necessarily lead to higher levels of IEM capacity, at least certainly not for environmental reasons. Small scale makes environmental problems more salient, but the political-economic impact of Malta's small scale on IEM capacity building is greater. This was experienced in Malta as a result of EU accession requirements. The thesis reveals that small scale creates greater susceptibility to non-environmental international influences, making decision-makers responsive to international versus domestic forces. In today's global milieu, the small-scale advantages for IEM depend more on the national policy makers' ability, and opportunity, to link higher levels of IEM and political economic development together; than on the enhanced responsiveness of decision makers to environmental threats in a small confined ecological-political domain

Automatic Segmentation of Indoor and Outdoor Scenes from Visual Lifelogging

Visual Lifelogging is the process of keeping track of one's life through wearable cameras. The focus of this research is to automatically classify images, captured from a wearable camera, into indoor and outdoor scenes. The results of this classification may be used in several applications. For instance, one can quantify the time a person spends outdoors and indoors which may give insights about the psychology of the concerned person. We use transfer learning from two VGG convolutional neural networks (CNN), one that is pre-trained on the ImageNet data set and the other on the Places data set. We investigate two methods of combining features from the two pre-trained CNNs. We evaluate the performance on the new UBRug data set and the benchmark SUN397 data set and achieve accuracy rates of 98.24% and 97.06%, respectively. Features obtained from the ImageNet pretrained CNN turned out to be more effective than those obtained from the Places pre-trained CNN. Fusing the feature vectors obtained from these two CNNs is an effective way to improve the classification. In particular, the performance that we achieve on the SUN397 data set outperforms the state-of-the-art.<br/

State of the art on Building Integrated Solar Thermal Systems

The scope of this document is to present a review of current STS state of the art technological developments published in the area and the most suitable options for building integration RES applications. The aim of the document is to determine the work carried out in the area of building integration of STS. This will enable an understanding of how this integration is applied so far, which will help to identify new ways that this integration will be investigated subsequently. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Adolescent care-orientation and positive development in young adulthood

Purpose This study examined the extent to which care-oriented attitudes and behaviours in adolescence (e.g., volunteering) predict positive development (PD; e.g., life satisfaction and meaning/purpose) in young adulthood (19–28 years). Methods The analytic sample comprised 1,359 participants participating from a 35-year (16 wave) population-based cohort study (The Australian Temperament Project). Adolescent care-oriented attitudes and behaviours were defined in mid-adolescence (15–16 years). Young adult PD was defined by latent growth curve modelling across three waves (19–20, 23–24, and 27–28 years). Results There was considerable variation in PD at the beginning of young adulthood (19–20 years) (variance of intercept = 40.22, SE = 4.53, p < .001). Once baseline PD levels were established in young adulthood, there was evidence of increasing PD over time (mean slope = .34, SE = .04, 95%CI = [.26, .41], p < .001, β = .65), with little variation in this rate of change between participants (variance of slope = .27, SE = .15, p = .087). After controlling for sex, parental education, and personality factors (b = 3.49, SE(b) = .67, 95%CI = [2.17, 4.80], p < .001, β = .22) care orientations in adolescence predicted PD at age 19–20 years, establishing the starting point of PD trajectories across young adulthood. Conclusions Results suggest that promotion of care-oriented attitudes and behaviours in adolescence may enhance adult development by increasing PD levels at the start of the twenties. Intervening earlier in life is indicated as PD tends to remain stable throughout young adulthood once established